scholarly journals Modification of the AFM Sensor by a Precisely Regulated Air Stream to Increase Imaging Speed and Accuracy in the Contact Mode

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 2694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrius Dzedzickis ◽  
Vytautas Bucinskas ◽  
Darius Viržonis ◽  
Nikolaj Sesok ◽  
Arturas Ulcinas ◽  
...  

Increasing the imaging rate of atomic force microscopy (AFM) without impairing of the imaging quality is a challenging task, since the increase in the scanning speed leads to a number of artifacts related to the limited mechanical bandwidth of the AFM components. One of these artifacts is the loss of contact between the probe tip and the sample. We propose to apply an additional nonlinear force on the upper surface of a cantilever, which will help to keep the tip and surface in contact. In practice, this force can be produced by the precisely regulated airflow. Such an improvement affects the AFM system dynamics, which were evaluated using a mathematical model that is presented in this paper. The model defines the relationships between the additional nonlinear force, the pressure of the applied air stream, and the initial air gap between the upper surface of the cantilever and the end of the air duct. It was found that the nonlinear force created by the stream of compressed air (aerodynamic force) prevents the contact loss caused by the high scanning speed or the higher surface roughness, thus maintaining stable contact between the probe and the surface. This improvement allows us to effectively increase the scanning speed by at least 10 times using a soft (spring constant of 0.2 N/m) cantilever by applying the air pressure of 40 Pa. If a stiff cantilever (spring constant of 40 N/m) is used, the potential of vertical deviation improvement is twice is large. This method is suitable for use with different types of AFM sensors and it can be implemented practically without essential changes in AFM sensor design.

Author(s):  
Andrius Dzedzickis ◽  
Vytautas Bucinskas ◽  
Darius Viržonis ◽  
Nikolaj Sesok ◽  
Arturas Ulcinas ◽  
...  

Increasing of the imaging rate of conventional atomic force microscopy (AFM) is almost impossible without impairing of the imaging quality, since the probe tip tends to lose contact with the sample. We propose to apply the additional nonlinear force on the upper surface of a cantilever, which will help to keep the tip and surface in contact. In practice this force can be produced by the precisely regulated airflow. Such an improvement affects the AFM system dynamics, which were evaluated using a mathematical model presented in this paper. The model defines the relationships between the additional nonlinear force, the pressure of the applied air stream and the initial air gap between the upper surface of the cantilever and the end of the air duct. It was found that the nonlinear force created by the stream of compressed air (aerodynamic force) prevents the contact loss caused by the high scanning speed or higher surface roughness, and at the same time has minimal influence on the interaction force, thus maintaining stable contact between the probe and the surface. This improvement allows to effectively increase the scanning speed by at least 10 times using a soft (spring constant of 0.2 N/m) cantilever by applying the air pressure of 40 Pa. If a stiff cantilever (spring constant of 40 N/m) is used, the potential of accuracy improvement reaches 92 times. This method is suitable for use with different types of AFM sensors and can be implemented practically without essential changes in AFM sensor design.


Author(s):  
H. Kinney ◽  
M.L. Occelli ◽  
S.A.C. Gould

For this study we have used a contact mode atomic force microscope (AFM) to study to topography of fluidized cracking catalysts (FCC), before and after contamination with 5% vanadium. We selected the AFM because of its ability to well characterize the surface roughness of materials down to the atomic level. It is believed that the cracking in the FCCs occurs mainly on the catalysts top 10-15 μm suggesting that the surface corrugation could play a key role in the FCCs microactivity properties. To test this hypothesis, we chose vanadium as a contaminate because this metal is capable of irreversibly destroying the FCC crystallinity as well as it microporous structure. In addition, we wanted to examine the extent to which steaming affects the vanadium contaminated FCC. Using the AFM, we measured the surface roughness of FCCs, before and after contamination and after steaming.We obtained our FCC (GRZ-1) from Davison. The FCC is generated so that it contains and estimated 35% rare earth exchaged zeolite Y, 50% kaolin and 15% binder.


Friction ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinfeng Tan ◽  
Dan Guo ◽  
Jianbin Luo

AbstractDynamic friction occurs not only between two contact objects sliding against each other, but also between two relative sliding surfaces several nanometres apart. Many emerging micro- and nano-mechanical systems that promise new applications in sensors or information technology may suffer or benefit from noncontact friction. Herein we demonstrate the distance-dependent friction energy dissipation between the tip and the heterogeneous polymers by the bimodal atomic force microscopy (AFM) method driving the second order flexural and the first order torsional vibration simultaneously. The pull-in problem caused by the attractive force is avoided, and the friction dissipation can be imaged near the surface. The friction dissipation coefficient concept is proposed and three different contact states are determined from phase and energy dissipation curves. Image contrast is enhanced in the intermediate setpoint region. The work offers an effective method for directly detecting the friction dissipation and high resolution images, which overcomes the disadvantages of existing methods such as contact mode AFM or other contact friction and wear measuring instruments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Gros-Otero ◽  
Samira Ketabi ◽  
Rafael Cañones-Zafra ◽  
Montserrat Garcia-Gonzalez ◽  
Cesar Villa-Collar ◽  
...  

Abstract Background To compare the anterior surface roughness of two commercially available posterior chamber phakic intraocular lenses (IOLs) using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Methods Four phakic IOLs were used for this prospective, experimental study: two Visian ICL EVO+ V5 lenses and two iPCL 2.0 lenses. All of them were brand new, were not previously implanted in humans, were monofocal and had a dioptric power of − 12 diopters (D). The anterior surface roughness was assessed using a JPK NanoWizard II® atomic force microscope in contact mode immersed in liquid. Olympus OMCL-RC800PSA commercial silicon nitride cantilever tips were used. Anterior surface roughness measurements were made in 7 areas of 10 × 10 μm at 512 × 512 point resolution. The roughness was measured using the root-mean-square (RMS) value within the given regions. Results The mean of all anterior surface roughness measurements was 6.09 ± 1.33 nm (nm) in the Visian ICL EVO+ V5 and 3.49 ± 0.41 nm in the iPCL 2.0 (p = 0.001). Conclusion In the current study, we found a statistically significant smoother anterior surface in the iPCL 2.0 phakic intraocular lenses compared with the VISIAN ICL EVO+ V5 lenses when studied with atomic force microscopy.


1996 ◽  
Vol 273 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 138-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seizo Morita ◽  
Satoru Fujisawa ◽  
Eigo Kishi ◽  
Masahiro Ohta ◽  
Hitoshi Ueyama ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 1143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bijandra Kumar ◽  
Mickaël Castro ◽  
Jianbo Lu ◽  
Jean-François Feller

ABSTRACTOrganic vapour sensors based on poly (methylmethacrylate)-multi-wall carbon nanotubes (PMMA-CNT) conductive polymer nanocomposite (CPC) were developed via layer by layer technique by spray deposition. CPC Sensors were exposed to three different classes of solvents (chloroform, methanol and water) and their chemo-electrical properties were followed as a function of CNTcontent in dynamic mode. Detection time was found to be shorter than that necessary for full recovery of initial state. CNT real three dimensional network has been visualized by Atomic force microscopy in a field assisted intermittent contact mode. More interestingly real conductive network system and electrical ability of CPC have been explored by current-sensing atomic force microscopy (CS-AFM). Realistic effect of voltage on electrical conductivity has been found linear.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 945-952 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher C Glover ◽  
Jason P Killgore ◽  
Ryan C Tung

This work presents data confirming the existence of a scan speed related phenomenon in contact-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM). Specifically, contact-resonance spectroscopy is used to interrogate this phenomenon. Above a critical scan speed, a monotonic decrease in the recorded contact-resonance frequency is observed with increasing scan speed. Proper characterization and understanding of this phenomenon is necessary to conduct accurate quantitative imaging using contact-resonance AFM, and other contact-mode AFM techniques, at higher scan speeds. A squeeze film hydrodynamic theory is proposed to explain this phenomenon, and model predictions are compared against the experimental data.


2007 ◽  
Vol 78 (9) ◽  
pp. 093705 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. D. Langlois ◽  
G. A. Shaw ◽  
J. A. Kramar ◽  
J. R. Pratt ◽  
D. C. Hurley

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