Damping in Dynamic Force Microscopy: The Role of Functionalized Groups

Damping in Dynamic Force Microscopy: The Role of Functionalized Groups. As a relatively new scanning probe technique, Dynamic Force Microscopy [1] has proved to be a powerful tool, allowing for imaging the topography of a sample surface with true atomic resolution. Besides topographic imaging, the simultaneously recorded damping signal is related to non-conservative interaction between tip and sample. For a molecular system, we show the tip-induced switching of the functionalized groups of the organic molecule leading to an enhanced damping signal.