On the origin of amplitude reduction mechanism in tapping mode atomic force microscopy

The origin of amplitude reduction in Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy (TM-AFM) is typically attributed to the shift in resonance frequency of the cantilever due to the nonlinear tip-sample interactions. In this paper, we present a different insight into the same problem which, besides explaining the amplitude reduction mechanism, provides...

Chaos: The speed limiting phenomenon in dynamic atomic force microscopy

This paper investigates the closed-loop dynamics of the Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy using a new mathematical model based on the averaging method in Cartesian coordinates. Experimental and numerical observations show that the emergence of chaos in conventional tapping mode AFM strictly limits the imaging speed. We show that, if the...

Quantifying amplitude reduction mechanism in Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy

Mechanics of Nanoelectromechanical Systems: Bridging the Gap Between Experiment and Theory

Nowadays, mechanical designers and engineers of elastic structures at ultra-small scales face an interesting challenge; traditional flexures with several components, mechanical joints/ welds and linkages are almost impossible to manufacture with existing microsystem fabrication technologies. Therefore, the majority of mechanical components,...

Method for determining a spring constant for a deformable scanning probe microscope element, and scanning probe microscope and calibration device arranged for determining a spring constant for a probe element

A method for determining a spring constant k for a deformable probe element (102) of a scanning probe microscope SPM (100). The probe (102) has an outer surface area consisting of a tip area (112) on a first probe side (108) and a tip-less area (113). The probe (102) also has a probe electrode (114) and a scanning probe tip (104) in the tip area...

On the size-dependent elasticity of silicon nanocantilevers: Impact of defects

Recent measurements have indicated that the elastic behaviour of silicon nanocantilevers and nanowires is size-dependent. Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, mainly focused on surface stress effects. However, discrepancies are found between experiments and theories, indicating that there could be other...

Some considerations of effects-induced errors in resonant cantilevers with the laser deflection method

Micro/nano resonant cantilevers with a laser deflection readout have been very popular in sensing applications over the past years. Despite the popularity, however, most of the research has been devoted to increasing the sensitivity, and very little attention has been focused on effects-induced errors. Among these effects, the surface effects...

Effects of size and defects on the elasticity of silicon nanocantilevers

The size-dependent elastic behavior of silicon nanocantilevers and nanowires, specifically the effective Young’s modulus, has been determined by experimental measurements and theoretical investigations. The size dependence becomes more significant as the devices scale down from micro- to nano-dimensions, which has mainly been attributed to...

Surface stress-induced change in overall elastic behavior and self-bending of ultrathin cantilever plates

In this letter, the dominant role of surface stress and surface elasticity on the overall elastic behavior of ultrathin cantilever plates is studied. A general framework based on two-dimensional plane-stress analysis is presented. Because of either surface reconstruction or molecular adsorption, there exists a surface stress and a surface...

Characterizing size-dependent effective elastic modulus of silicon nanocantilevers using electrostatic pull-in instability

This letter presents the application of electrostatic pull-in instability to study the size-dependent effective Young’s Modulus ? ( ~170–70?GPa) of [110] silicon nanocantilevers (thickness ~1019–40?nm). The presented approach shows substantial advantages over the previous methods used for characterization of nanoelectromechanical systems...

A mechanistic model for adsorption-induced change in resonance response of submicron cantilevers

Submicron cantilever structures have been demonstrated to be extremely versatile sensors and have potential applications in physics, chemistry and biology. The basic principle in submicron cantilever sensors is the measurement of the resonance frequency shift due to the added mass of the molecules bound to the cantilever surface. This paper...