We present the fabrication process of a tool that can be used in standard atomic force microscope (AFM) for in situ characterization of chemical, chemical–mechanical or physical surface modification performed with the same device. The image obtained during scanning contains information about the modified and unmodified topographies for each scanning line, thus quantification of surface topograp...

A promising approach for detecting biomolecules follows their binding to immobilized probe molecules on microfabricated cantilevers; binding causes surface stresses that bend the cantilever. We measured this deflection, which is on the order of tens of nanometers, by embedding a metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) into the base of the cantilever and recording decreases in...

Abstract Electrostatic force microscopy at cryogenic temperatures is used to probe the electrostatic interaction of a conductive atomic force microscopy tip and electronic charges trapped in localized states in an insulating layer on a semiconductor. Measurement of the frequency shift of the cantilever as a function of tip-sample shows discrete peaks at certain voltages when the tip is located ...

A nonlinear parameter estimation method has been developed to extract the separation-dependent surface force and cantilever spring constant from atomic force microscope data taken at different speeds for the interaction between a silica colloidal probe and plate in aqueous solution. The distinguishing feature of this approach is that it exploits information from the velocity dependence of the f...

A new interfacial microrheology technique using atomic force microscope (AFM) as a force sensor is developed. The probe used for microrheology contains a long vertical glass fiber with one end glued onto a rectangular shaped cantilever beam and the other end immersed through a water-air interface. The motion of the modified cantilever can be accurately described by the Langevin equation for a d...

A novel dual tip nanomanipulation atomic force microscope (AFM) platform operating in ambient conditions is presented. The system is equipped with a high frequency quartz piezoelectric self-sensing scanning probe for fast imaging and a passive cantilever for manipulation. The system is validated by imaging and selective pushing/pulling of gold colloid beads (diameters from 80 to 180 nm). This p...

Images and force measurements taken by an atomic-force microscope ( AFM) depend greatly on the properties of the spring and tip used to probe the sample’s surface. In this article, we describe a simple, nondestructive procedure for measuring the force constant, resonant frequency, and quality factor of an AFM cantilever spring and the effective radius of curvature of an AFM tip. Our procedure u...

The monitoring of the deflection of a micro-cantilever, as the end of a sharp probe mounted at its end, i.e. the tip, interacts with a surface, forms the foundation of atomic force microscopy AFM. In a nutshell, developments in the field are driven by the requirement of obtaining ever increasing throughput and sensitivity, and enhancing the versatility of the instrument to simultaneously map th...

A combined system for far- and near-field optical spectroscopy consisting of a compact scanning near-field optical microscope and a dedicated spectrometer was realized. The set-up allows the optical investigation of samples at temperatures from 10 to 300 K. The sample positioning range is as large as 5 x 5 x 5 mm3 and the spatial resolution is in the range of 1.5 micro m in the far-field optica...

We demonstrate high speed force-distance mapping using a double-pass scheme. The topography is measured in tapping mode in the first pass and this information is used in the second pass to move the tip over the sample. In the second pass, the cantilever dither signal is turned off and the sample is vibrated. Rapid (few kHz frequency) force-distance curves can be recorded with small peak interac...