Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is a widely used technique to measure the local contact potential difference (CPD) between an AFM probe and the sample surface via the electrostatic force. The spatial resolution of KPFM is intrinsically limited by the long range of the electrostatic interaction, which includes contributions from the macroscopic cantilever and the conical tip. Here, we prese...

A crucial remaining challenge in the development of the magnetic resonance force microscope (MRFM) is to place the magnetic probe on the mechanical resonator. Here we address the problem of spurious detector response arising from interactions between the magnetic tip and various external applied elds. Ferromagnetic resonance experiments on a microscopic, thin-lm yttrium iron garnet crystal moun...

This paper developed an active scanning probe array. The probe array consists of 16×2 probes thermally actuating and sensing. The 32 probes are integrated with Ti/Pt temperature sensors and bimorph thermal actuators. Each probe is a Si3N4 cantilever equipped with a sharp nano scale pyramid tip at its free end. When one of the probes is actuated, its neighboring probes can provide temperature se...

We report an approach that extends the applicability of ultrasensitive force-gradient detection of magnetic resonance to samples with spin-lattice relaxation times (T (1)) as short as a single cantilever period. To demonstrate the generality of the approach, which relies on detecting either cantilever frequency or phase, we used it to detect electron spin resonance from a T (1) = 1 ms nitroxide...

Scanning probe microscopy methods allow the investigation of a variety of sample surface properties on a nanometer scale, even down to single molecules. As molecular electronics advance, the characterization of electrical properties becomes more and more important. In both research and industry, films made from composite materials and lithographically structured elements have already reached st...

A mode of atomic force microscopy AFM is demonstrated where an oscillating AFM cantilever having linear response is driven with two frequencies in the vicinity of a resonance. New frequencies in the response, known as intermodulation products, are generated when the linearity of the cantilever response is perturbed by the nonlinear tip-surface interaction. A rich structure of the intermodulatio...

We have developed a simple method to characterize the mechanical properties of three dimensional nanostructures, such as nanorods standing up from a substrate. With an atomic force microscope the cantilever probe is used to deflect a horizontally aligned nanorod at different positions along the nanorod, using the apex of the cantilever itself rather than the tip normally used for probing surfac...

This paper describes a detailed computational model of the interaction between an atomic force microscope probe tip and a sample surface. The model provides analyses of dynamic behaviors of the tip to estimate the probe deflections due to surface intermittent contact and the resulting dimensional biases and uncertainties. Probe tip and cantilever beam responses to intermittent contact between t...

We present a micromachined cantilever with an integrated high-bandwidth resonator for direct measurement of tip-sample interaction forces in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy. Force measurements are achieved by a diffraction grating that serves as a differential displacement sensor for the tip motion relative to the cantilever body. Time-resolved tip-sample interaction force measurement is d...

Parallel frequency readout of an array of cantilevers is demonstrated using optical beam deflection with a single laser-diode pair. Multi-frequency addressing makes the individual nanomechanical response of each cantilever distinguishable within the received signal. Addressing is accomplished by exciting the array with the sum of all cantilever resonant frequencies. This technique requires cons...