A variable temperature, ultrahigh vacuum atomic force microscope AFM was used to characterize interfacial friction for a single-asperity diamond contact on a diamondlike carbon DLC substrate over a nominal substrate temperature range of 90 to 275 K. Calibrated friction force measurements were obtained by analyzing lateral force hysteresis loops as a function of normal force. For sufficiently la...

In the quest for the mechanism of protein functions, various key techniques and instruments have been developed. This is an era when scrutinizing a certain protein from various angles is becoming possible through combined knowledge of its structure and function. However, it is necessary to link these different aspects of a protein along a time axis, but no technology is available for tracing a ...

The stationary solutions of the asymptotic equation describing the force interactions between an oscillatory probe and a sample provide the relationship between the probe parameters (amplitude A, phase θ, position Zc) and the acting force (cos θ ≈ FZ). Under the assumption of small amplitude cos θ is proportional to the force gradient. However, we go beyond this assumption by expressing the int...

Stiffness-load curves obtained in quantitative atomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) measurements depend on both the elastic properties of the sample and the geometry of the atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. The geometry of silicon AFM tips changes when used in contact mode, affecting measurement accuracy. To study the influence of tip geometry, we subjected ten AFM tips to the same series o...

Calibration of atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers is necessary for the measurement of nanonewton and piconewton forces, which are critical to analytical applications of AFM in the analysis of polymer surfaces, biological structures and organic molecules. We have developed a compact and easy-to-use reference artefact for this calibration by bulk micromachining of silicon, which we call a ...

We present an atomic force microscope (AFM) head for optical beam deflection on small cantilevers. Our AFM head is designed to be small in size, easily integrated into a commercial AFM system, and has a modular architecture facilitating exchange of the optical and electronic assemblies. We present two different designs for both the optical beam deflection and the electronic readout systems, and...

Atomic force microscopes (AFM) provide topographical and mechanical information of the sample with very good axial resolution, but are limited in terms of chemical specificity and operation time-scale. An optical microscope coupled to an AFM can recognize and target an area of interest using specific identification markers like fluorescence tags. A high resolution fluorescence microscope can vi...

Nanoindentation is a popular experimental technique for characterization of the mechanical properties of soft and biological materials. With its force resolution of tens of pico-Newtons, the atomic force microscope (AFM) is well-suited for performing indentation experiments on soft materials. However, nonlinear contact and adhesion complicate such experiments. This paper critically examines the...

Non-contact Atomic ForceMicroscopy (NC-AFM) is an experimental technique capable of imaging almost any surface with atomic resolution, in a wide variety of environments. Linking measured images to real understanding of system properties is often difficult, and many studies combine experiments with detailedmodelling, in particular using virtual simulators to directlymimic experimental operation....