Prototyping Electrostatic Scanning Force Microscope

A scanning force microscope combining commercial AFM probes, printed circuit boards, and electrostatic actuation and detection is proposed and demonstrated. The electrostatic actuator is formed by the AFM probe and a fixed trace on a PCB. It is driven by a biased harmonic voltage with a frequency close to the probe’s resonant frequency. The separation distance between the probe tip and the specimen surface is managed to perform tapping mode scanning. A lock-in amplifier measures the second harmonic of the actuator current as the sense signal in an open-loop scheme. Preliminary results produced by the current’s magnitude and phase resemble the specimen’s topography.

Scanning force microscope forin situnanofocused X-ray diffraction studies

A compact scanning force microscope has been developed forin situcombination with nanofocused X-ray diffraction techniques at third-generation synchrotron beamlines. Its capabilities are demonstrated on Au nano-islands grown on a sapphire substrate. The newin situdevice allows forin situimaging the sample topography and the crystallinity by recording simultaneously an atomic force microscope (AFM) image and a scanning X-ray diffraction map of the same area. Moreover, a selected Au island can be mechanically deformed using the AFM tip while monitoring the deformation of the atomic lattice by nanofocused X-ray diffraction. Thisin situapproach gives access to the mechanical behavior of nanomaterials.