We have studied the frictional properties of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of phenyl-terminated alkanethiols, C6H5(CH2)nSH (n = 13–16) on template-stripped gold. The friction force was measured with atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the magnitude of the adhesion was controlled by immersing the sliding contact in ethanol (giving low adhesion) or dry N2 gas (giving enhanced adhesion relative ...

Dynamic atomic force microscopy, in essence, consists of a vibrating microcantilever with a nanoscale tip that interacts with a sample surface via shortand long-range intermolecular forces. Microcantilevers possess several distinct eigenmodes and the tip-sample interaction forces are highly nonlinear. As a consequence, cantilevers vibrate in interesting, often unanticipated ways; some are detri...

Piezoresponse forcemicroscopy (PFM) and related bias-induced strain sensing atomic force microscopy techniques provide unique characterization ofmaterial-functionality at the nanoscale. However, these techniques are prone to unwanted artifact signals that influence the vibration amplitude of the detecting cantilever. Here, we show that higher-order contact resonance eigenmodes can be readily ex...

Two methods commonly used to measure the normal spring constants of atomic force microscope cantilevers are the added mass method of Cleveland et al. @J. P. Cleveland et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 64, 403 ~1993!#, and the unloaded resonance technique of Sader et al. @J. E. Sader, J. W. M. Chon, and P. Mulvaney, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 3967 ~1999!#. The added mass method involves measuring the chang...

The photodiode sensitivity in the atomic force microscope is calibrated by relating the voltage noise to the thermal fluctuations of the cantilever angle. The method accounts for the ratio of the thermal fluctuations measured in the fundamental vibration mode to the total, and also for the tilt and extended tip of the cantilever. The method is noncontact and is suitable for soft or deformable s...

This paper describes a micro-optical three-axis tactile sensor capable of sensing not only normal force, but also shearing force. The normal force was detected from the integrated gray-scale values of bright pixels emitted from the contact area of conical feelers. The conical feelers were formed on a rubber sheet surface that maintains contact with an optical waveguide plate. The shearing force...

A two dimensional deformation due to internal heat source in a thermoelastic solid with microtemperatures under the dependence of modulus of elasticity and thermal conductivity on reference temperature has been studied. A mechanical force of constant magnitude is applied at the free surface of thermoelastic half space. The normal modes technique has been applied to obtain the exact expressions ...

The present investigation is concerned with the deformation of thermoporoelastic half space with incompressible fluid as a result of inclined load of arbitrary orientation. The inclined load is assumed to be linear combination of normal load and tangential load. The Laplace and Fourier transform technique are used to solve the problem. The concentrated force, uniformly distributed force and a m...

This paper presents the design, construction and testing of a new capacitive tactile sensor for measurement of normal tactile force. The operation of proposed sensor has been investigated in ASTABLE and MONOSTABLE circuits. According to the results of these circuits the deviation of ASTABLE circuit results is less than MONOSTABLE circuit results. In addition, the results obtained from ASTABLE c...