title: Calibrating conservative and dissipative response of electrically-driven quartz tuning forks.
abstract: Determining sensor parameters is a prerequisite for quantitative force measurement. Here we report a direct, high-precision calibration method for quartz tuning fork (TF) sensors that are popular in the field of nanomechanical measurement. In the method, conservative and dissipative forces with controlled amplitudes are applied to one prong of TF directly to mimic the tip-sample interaction, and the responses of the sensor are measured at the same time to extract sensor parameters. The method, for the first time, allows force gradient and damping coefficient which correspond to the conservative and dissipative interactions to be measured simultaneously. The calibration result shows surprisingly that, unlike cantilevers, the frequency shift for TFs depends on both the conservative and dissipative forces, which may be ascribed to the complex dynamics. The effectiveness of the method is testified by force spectrum measurement with a calibrated TF. The method is generic for all kinds of sensors used for non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) and is an important improvement for quantitative nanomechanical measurement.
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Lifeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Zhenxing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Weicheng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Wenbo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China. Electronic address: wrg@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Rongguo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
keywords: Calibration method; Non-contact atomic force microscopy; Quantitative nanomechanical measurement; Quartz tuning fork