Recently developed adhesion atomic force microscopy was used as a technique to map the spatial arrangement of chemical functional groups at a surface with a lateral resolution of 20 nm. The ratio of the adhesion forces for different functional groups can be compared with values determined from the known surface energies. This concept was demonstrated by mapping the adhesive interaction of domai...

A method for sensing the dissipation occurring when a sharp atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip is oscillated laterally above a surface at distances typical of non-contact mode AFM operation is established and demonstrated. Dissipation is detected by measuring the damping of lateral resonant modes of the AFM cantilever, excited independently after the lateral resonant mode identification, when th...

Frequency modulation atomic force microscopy utilizes the change in resonant frequency of a cantilever to detect variations in the interaction force between cantilever tip and sample. While a simple relation exists enabling the frequency shift to be determined for a given force law, the required complementary inverse relation does not exist for arbitrary oscillation amplitudes of the cantilever...

Let’s examine briefly the actual workflow necessary to run an AFM experiment. A typical session starts with sample preparation and AFM mode selection. The latter sometimes dictating the former. Once the sample is ready, the AFM has to be set up (i.e., the sample has to be mounted, the scan mode selected, a tip inserted, and the detection system aligned). After that, the system has to be brought...