In bimodal atomic force microscopy, two flexural modes are driven at their resonances. The oscillation of the second eigenmode, which is usually an incommensurate multiple of the fundamental frequency, perturbs the dynamic system. Numerical simulations show that the tip motion is almost periodic at typical set points and that harmonics and intermodulation frequencies prevail in the spectrum. Th...

In atomic force microscopy (AFM) the imaging speed is strongly limited by the bandwidth of the feedback loop that controls the interaction between the measurement tip and the sample. A significant increase in closed-loop bandwidth can be achieved by combining a long-range, low-bandwidth actuator with a short-range, high-bandwidth actuator, forming a dual actuated system. This contribution discu...