Nonlinear dynamics for estimating the tip radius in atomic force microscopy
Enrique Rull Trinidad (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
P. Belardinelli (TU Delft - Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems)
U. Staufer (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
Farbod Alijani (TU Delft - Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems)
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Abstract
The accuracy of measurements in Amplitude Modulation Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is directly related to the geometry of the tip. The AFM tip is characterized by its radius of curvature, which could suffer from alterations due to repetitive mechanical contact with the surface. An estimation of the tip change would allow the user to assess the quality during imaging. In this work, we introduce a method for tip radius evaluation based on the nonlinear dynamic response of the AFM cantilever. A nonlinear fitting procedure is used to match several curves with softening nonlinearity in the noncontact regime. By performing measurements in this regime, we are able to maximize the influence of the tip radius on the AFM probe response, and this can be exploited to estimate with good accuracy the AFM tip radius.