Determining amplitude and tilt of a lateral force microscopy sensor

[摘要] In lateral force microscopy (LFM), implemented as frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy, the tip oscillates parallel to thesurface. Existing amplitude calibration methods are not applicable for mechanically excited LFM sensors at low temperature. Moreover, a slight angular offset of the oscillation direction (tilt) has a significant influence on the acquired data. To determine theamplitude and tilt we make use of the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) channel and acquire data without and with oscillationof the tip above a local surface feature. We use a full two-dimensional current map of the STM data without oscillation to simulatedata for a given amplitude and tilt. Finally, the amplitude and tilt are determined by fitting the simulation output to the data withoscillation.

[学科分类] 环境监测和分析

[关键词] frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy;lateral forcemicroscopy;amplitude calibration;tilt estimation