High–low Kelvin probe force spectroscopy for measuring the interface state density

• Ryo Izumi,
• Masato Miyazaki,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 175–189, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.18

• known as a method that can measure the contact potential difference (CPD) between a tip and a sample with high spatial resolution [4][5]. KPFM is based on the detection of the electrostatic force between a tip and a sample using atomic force microscopy (AFM) [6][7][8]. CPD and topographic measurements

• with respect to the cutoff frequency fc of carrier transport between the bulk and interface states and measuring the difference in CPD by KPFM. In high–low KPFM, frequency modulation (FM) KPFM (FM-KPFM) combined with FM-AFM is used to detect the tip–sample interaction force. FM-KPFM has several

• advantages, namely high sensitivity to the electrostatic force gradient, high detection sensitivity using a cantilever with a weak spring constant at the first resonance, ease of implementation in adding FM-AFM, and no need to enhance the bandwidth of the cantilever deflection sensor. FM-KPFM is used to

Structural, optical, and bioimaging characterization of carbon quantum dots solvothermally synthesized from o-phenylenediamine

• Zoran M. Marković,
• Milica D. Budimir,
• Martin Danko,
• Dušan D. Milivojević,
• Pavel Kubat,
• Danica Z. Zmejkoski,
• Vladimir B. Pavlović,
• Marija M. Mojsin,
• Milena J. Stevanović and
• Biljana M. Todorović Marković

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 165–174, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.17

• characterization methods (AFM, TEM, EDS, FTIR, photoluminescence, and EPR) indicate the significant influence of the precursor on structural, chemical, and optical properties. Antibacterial and cytotoxicity tests showed that these dots did not have any antibacterial potential, because of the low extent of reactive

• cytotoxic properties of CQDs and CQD/polyurethane composites. Results and Discussion Surface morphology Figure S1 (Supporting Information File 1) presents the surface morphology of the CQD samples. Figure S1a shows a TEM micrograph of CQDs. The average diameter of these dots is 4 ± 1 nm. A top-view AFM

• image of CQDs is presented in Figure S1b (Supporting Information File 1). TEM and AFM images show that the CQDs are spherical. Statistical analysis conducted on more than 20 AFM images in Gwyddion software showed that more than 80% of the CQDs had a diameter between 2 and 5 nm while their height was 2.6

Intermodal coupling spectroscopy of mechanical modes in microcantilevers

• Ioan Ignat,
• Bernhard Schuster,
• Jonas Hafner,
• MinHee Kwon,
• Daniel Platz and
• Ulrich Schmid

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 123–132, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.13

• Ioan Ignat Bernhard Schuster Jonas Hafner MinHee Kwon Daniel Platz Ulrich Schmid Institute of Sensor and Actuator Systems, TU Wien, Gußhaustraße 27–29, 1040 Vienna, Austria 10.3762/bjnano.14.13 Abstract Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is highly regarded as a lens peering into the next discoveries

• , these improvements have yet to find a practical way to AFM. As a solution, we investigate here a mechanism in which individual mechanical eigenmodes of a microcantilever couple to one another, mimicking optomechanical techniques to reduce thermal noise. We have a look at the most commonly used modes in

• AFM, starting with the first two flexural modes of cantilevers and asses the impact of an amplified coupling between them. In the following, we expand our investigation to the sea of eigenmodes available in the same structure and find a maximum coupling of 9.38 × 103 Hz/nm between two torsional modes

Characterisation of a micrometer-scale active plasmonic element by means of complementary computational and experimental methods

• Ciarán Barron,
• Giulia Di Fazio,
• Samuel Kenny,
• Silas O’Toole,
• Robin O’Reilly and
• Dominic Zerulla

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 110–122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.12

• distribution is investigated by means of scanning Joule expansion microscopy (SJEM) [32]. The technique provides a method to obtain the relative temperature distribution at the nanoscale starting from the measurement of induced thermal expansion, which can be directly mapped in a standard AFM-based image using

• on a sapphire substrate via physical vapour deposition (PVD). After this, two separate AFMs are used to machine channels in the silver film to create the desired constriction, which in this case measures 10 μm. The tip of the AFM is held at a set loading force in contact with the thin metal film and

• temperature distribution surrounding the active element through SJEM mapping the thermal expansion of the metallic surface using an AFM. Both methods are further reinforced through the use of three-dimensional simulations. A description of the experimental methods of both investigations is detailed below as

Liquid phase exfoliation of talc: effect of the medium on flake size and shape

• Samuel M. Sousa,
• Helane L. O. Morais,
• Joyce C. C. Santos,
• Ana Paula M. Barboza,
• Bernardo R. A. Neves,
• Elisângela S. Pinto and
• Mariana C. Prado

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 68–78, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.8

• boiling point, butanone leaves less residues when exfoliated flakes are deposited onto substrates for atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. Table 1 summarizes the solutions tested here, and details of the sample preparation can be found in the Experimental section. Liquid exfoliation of talc Talc

• . Thick flakes (>100 nm) must be removed to implement a semi-automated analysis of thousands of flakes based on AFM images that provide a robust statistical representation of the sample [24][25]. At the same time, the removal of flakes that are few to tens of nanometers thick would make the effect of

• Figure 2 shows the results obtained for each exfoliation medium. Figure 2a–d shows AFM topographical images of samples exfoliated in butanone, SC1, SC6, and Triton-X100, respectively. A single vertical scale was chosen to facilitate the visualization of flakes of different thicknesses in all samples. The

Gap-directed chemical lift-off lithographic nanoarchitectonics for arbitrary sub-micrometer patterning

• Chang-Ming Wang,
• Hong-Sheng Chan,
• Chia-Li Liao,
• Che-Wei Chang and
• Wei-Ssu Liao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 34–44, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.4

• Schottky Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope, Tokyo, Japan) is used, but for sub-100 nm features AFM is employed to avoid the heavy influence of high-energy electron beams on molecular patterns in imaging. The straightness of the obtained lines is also assessed by calculating the linear regression

• of pattern edges. Coordinates of 10 evenly spaced points on edges of line features are extracted and a regression line is obtained. The R2 values are calculated to be at least 0.9858 for all line borders shown in the AFM images of Figure 4, indicating the straight pattern edges and faithful transfers

• characterized by SEM for feature line width of (B) 150 nm and by AFM for feature line widths (C) 80 nm (D) 50 nm (E) 35 nm, and (F) 5 nm. Scale bar is 2 μm (B) and (C), and 100 nm (D–F). Illustration of the gap-directed chemical lift-off lithography process. (A) The selective removal of alkanethiols from an Au

Electrical and optical enhancement of ITO/Mo bilayer thin films via laser annealing

• Abdelbaki Hacini,
• Ahmad Hadi Ali,
• Nurul Nadia Adnan and
• Nafarizal Nayan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1589–1595, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.133

• AFM analysis shows that grain size and RMS roughness increased from 16.02 to 36.19 nm and 0.4 to 2.6 nm, respectively, when the laser energy was increased to 120 mJ. The as-deposited sample has an optical transmittance of nearly 80% in the 300–800 nm range. The laser annealing yielded a higher

• roughness of the bilayer structure were studied utilizing an atomic force microscope (AFM, Bruker Dimension Edge) and the Gwyddion software. The optical transmission was measured using an UV–vis spectrophotometer (UV-3600i Plus, SHIMADZU) in the range of λ = 300–800 nm. Finally, the electrical properties

• 3.21 × 1014 lines/m2. Figure 2 displays the surface morphology in 3D images of ITO/Mo for the as-deposited and annealed samples. These images were scanned over an area of 1.0 × 1.0 µm using AFM. Figure 2 shows the different morphologies for as-deposited and annealed samples using a laser for different

From a free electron gas to confined states: A mixed island of PTCDA and copper phthalocyanine on Ag(111)

• Alfred J. Weymouth,
• Emily Roche and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1572–1577, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.131

• of one-dimensional quantum wells, our analysis shows that this state does not act as a free electron gas and that the features are instead localized above individual PTCDA molecules. Keywords: AFM; copper phthalocyanine; dI/dV; PTCDA; STM; Introduction Organic semiconductor devices typically

• -precision STM and atomic force microscopy (AFM) scanning. Third, CuPc and PTCDA are known to form commensurate phases on flat metal surfaces. In particular, they have been well studied at different stoichiometries on Ag(111) [16]. Henneke and co-workers showed that more than 0.15 ML of PTCDA in addition to

• to CuPc within each unit cell, called the P2C phase [16]. A STM and AFM investigation of single CuPc and PTCDA molecules on a thin insulating layer interestingly showed little change of the dI/dV spectra (features shifted, but were preserved) or of the corresponding dI/dV images when the two

Induced electric conductivity in organic polymers

• Konstantin Y. Arutyunov,
• Anatoli S. Gurski,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Alexander L. Vasiliev,
• Azat R. Yusupov,
• Danfis D. Karamov and
• Alexei N. Lachinov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1551–1557, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.128

• microscopy (AFM) using an earlier described methodology [5]. The study of the film morphology showed that they are homogeneous, and within the entire thickness range from 3 nm to 1 µm the films are solid, without significant defects and/or pin holes. The observation confirms the good film-forming properties

Frequency-dependent nanomechanical profiling for medical diagnosis

• Santiago D. Solares and
• Alexander X. Cartagena-Rivera

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1483–1489, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.122

• Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA 10.3762/bjnano.13.122 Abstract Atomic force microscopy (AFM), developed in the early 1980s, has become a powerful characterization tool in micro- and nanoscale science. In the early 1990s, its relevance within biology and medicine research

• healthcare strategies that link routine AFM measurements with computer analysis, real-time communication with healthcare providers, and medical databases. This approach would be appropriate for diseases such as cancer, lupus, arteriosclerosis and arthritis, among others, which bring about significant

• mechanical changes in the affected tissues. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; healthcare; mechanical properties; mechanobiology; medical diagnosis; Introduction Since its invention in the early 1980s, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been extensively used for topographical, mechanical, electrical, and

Laser-processed antiadhesive bionic combs for handling nanofibers inspired by nanostructures on the legs of cribellate spiders

• Sebastian Lifka,
• Kristóf Harsányi,
• Erich Baumgartner,
• Lukas Pichler,
• Dariya Baiko,
• Karsten Wasmuth,
• Johannes Heitz,
• Marco Meyer,
• Anna-Christin Joel,
• Jörn Bonse and
• Werner Baumgartner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1268–1283, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.105

• Microsoft Excel. Details are presented in Table S2 in Supporting Information File 1. To investigate the effects of the surface texture on the measured peel-off force in more detail, the surfaces of the Al alloy and the Ti alloy samples were investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). The

• arithmetic average roughness (Ra), the quadratic average roughness (Rq) and the maximum height (Ry) were measured; the results are shown in Table 3. The results of the AFM measurements revealed that the LIPSS covering the Al alloy surface are rather flat. Ry, which represents basically double the amplitude a

• alloy samples, as well as the LIPSS-covered Al alloy sample were investigated by means of AFM on a Nanosurf Mobile S device (Nanosurf AG, Liestal, Switzerland). The investigated area had a size of 30 µm × 30 µm. The measurements were performed in contact mode with a Contr10 (Nanoworld, Neuchatel

Studies of probe tip materials by atomic force microscopy: a review

• Ke Xu and
• Yuzhe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1256–1267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.104

• Ke Xu Yuzhe Liu School of Electrical & Control Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang 110168, China 10.3762/bjnano.13.104 Abstract As a tool that can test insulators' surface morphology and properties, the performance index of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes is the most critical

• and disadvantages of the improved probes compared with ordinary probes by comparing the differences in spatial resolution, sensitivity, imaging, and other performance aspects, and finally provides an outlook on the future development of AFM probes. This paper promotes the development of AFM probes in

• the direction of new probes and further promotes the broader and deeper application of scanning probe microscope (SPM). Keywords: AFM; carbon nanotube probe; colloid probe; metal probe; Introduction AFM represents a well-established technique for the investigation of the nanosurface morphology

Design of surface nanostructures for chirality sensing based on quartz crystal microbalance

• Yinglin Ma,
• Xiangyun Xiao and
• Qingmin Ji

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1201–1219, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.100

• , Xu et al. studied real-time chiral recognition of CD films to isomers in the gas phase [69]. Based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations, functional β-CDs with a short sulfide group were inclined to form monolayers. In contrast, those with long sulfide groups produced a quasi-two-layer

A cantilever-based, ultrahigh-vacuum, low-temperature scanning probe instrument for multidimensional scanning force microscopy

• Hao Liu,
• Zuned Ahmed,
• Sasa Vranjkovic,
• Manfred Parschau,
• Andrada-Oana Mandru and
• Hans J. Hug

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1120–1140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.95

• Cantilever-based atomic force microscopy (AFM) performed under ambient conditions has become an important tool to characterize new material systems as well as devices. Current instruments permit robust scanning over large areas, atomic-scale lateral resolution, and the characterization of various sample

• properties using multifrequency and multimodal AFM operation modes. Research of new quantum materials and devices, however, often requires low temperatures and ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions and, more specifically, AFM instrumentation providing atomic resolution. For this, AFM instrumentation based on a

• tuning fork force sensor became increasingly popular. In comparison to microfabricated cantilevers, the more macroscopic tuning forks, however, lack sensitivity, which limits the measurement bandwidth. Moreover, multimodal and multifrequency techniques, such as those available in cantilever-based AFM

Effects of focused electron beam irradiation parameters on direct nanostructure formation on Ag surfaces

• Jānis Sniķeris,
• Vjačeslavs Gerbreders,
• Andrejs Bulanovs and
• Ēriks Sļedevskis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1004–1010, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.87

• -contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) using the model Park NX10 AFM. The first experiment was conducted with beam current I as the variable parameter ranging from 7 to 500 pA. However, changing the value of I also changed the beam diameter d, which is a function of I and the working distance (WD). The

• the ones measured by AFM due to the tip convolution effect [37]; however, this should not affect the displayed trends. The results presented in Figure 3 show that the height of the nanostructures on the Ag surface could be increased by elevating the EB focus by a few microns above the surface during

• surface as functions of time following chamber decontamination by nitrogen plasma cleaning. Constant EB parameters are: U = 30 kV, I = 55 pA, d = 14 nm, t = 30 s, and α = 0°. A representative AFM image of a nanostructure on an Ag surface after sustaining damage from N plasma cleaning. Constant EB

Design of a biomimetic, small-scale artificial leaf surface for the study of environmental interactions

• Miriam Anna Huth,
• Axel Huth,
• Lukas Schreiber and
• Kerstin Koch

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 944–957, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.83

• secondary electron detector. The working distance was 4–7 mm. Atomic force microscopy analysis of recrystallized structures The thickness of the wax coating on glass (1400 µg) was examined with an atomic force microscope (AFM, NanoWizard II, JPK instruments, Berlin, Germany). For this purpose, the

• recrystallized wax layer on the glass was partially removed with a razor blade. The sample was then attached to a microscope slide with double-sided adhesive tape. The AFM recordings were performed in tapping mode (amplitude: 0.05 V; frequency: 302.9 kHz, line rate: 0.3 Hz, set point: 940 mV) with tapping

• scales between them. AFM analysis of recrystallized structures Like the SEM analysis, the AFM analysis showed granule-shaped structures on the artificial surface (1400 µg). By removing the wax with a razor blade, a distinct edge was created, showing a 1.12 ± 0.23 µm thick wax layer (Figure 5). Analysis

Comparing the performance of single and multifrequency Kelvin probe force microscopy techniques in air and water

• Jason I. Kilpatrick,
• Emrullah Kargin and
• Brian J. Rodriguez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 922–943, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.82

• liquid environments whilst needing the smallest AC bias for operation. Keywords: AFM; atomic force microscopy; closed loop; Kelvin probe force microscope; KPFM; open loop; performance; signal-to-noise ratio; Introduction Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an enabling technique for the nanoscale mapping

• forces in KPFM is generally expressed as the minimum detectable CPD [53], and is directly limited by the geometry of the interaction, thermal noise of the cantilever, and the detection noise limits of the AFM [36][54]. Cantilevers have a number of eigenmodes, ωn, where there is a mechanical enhancement

• -mode [14][48][49][50]. The most common application of KPFM in AFM is CL AM-KPFM on the fundamental eigenmode where a bias feedback loop is employed to cancel the electrostatic force and to extract VCPD [10][60][61]. This single-frequency technique can also be used under OL conditions without a feedback

Temperature and chemical effects on the interfacial energy between a Ga–In–Sn eutectic liquid alloy and nanoscopic asperities

• Yujin Han,
• Pierre-Marie Thebault,
• Corentin Audes,
• Xuelin Wang,
• Haiwoong Park,
• Jian-Zhong Jiang and
• Arnaud Caron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 817–827, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.72

• increase of the interfacial energy as a function of the temperature, which can be explained by the reactivity between SiOx and Ga and the occurrence of chemical segregation at the liquid alloy surface. Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); interfacial energy; liquid alloy; Introduction Recently, room

• atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips of different chemistries as a function of the temperature (T = 21–90 °C) by AFM force spectroscopy using an XE100 AFM equipped with a heating stage (manufactured by Park Instruments, Republic of Korea). We recorded force–distance curves with PtSi-coated Si cantilevers

• (PtSi-cont, manufactured from NanoSensors, Switzerland), SiOx cantilevers (Contsc, manufactured from NanoSensors, Switzerland), and Au-coated Si cantilevers (ContscAu, manufactured from NanoSensors, Switzerland). Before measurements, the sensitivity of the AFM photodiode was calibrated by recording a

Optimizing PMMA solutions to suppress contamination in the transfer of CVD graphene for batch production

• Chun-Da Liao,
• Andrea Capasso,
• Tiago Queirós,
• Telma Domingues,
• Fatima Cerqueira,
• Nicoleta Nicoara,
• Jérôme Borme,
• Paulo Freitas and
• Pedro Alpuim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 796–806, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.70

• analyzer had a pass energy of 20 eV. Atomic force microscopy The surface topographies of graphene were investigated by a Bruker Dimension Icon atomic force microscope (AFM), using PPP-NCH (NanosensorsTM) cantilevers with a tip radius smaller than 20 nm, a force constant of 42 N/m, and 250 kHz resonance

• frequency. The AFM measurement was carried out in tapping mode. A 633 nm laser light aimed at the back side of the cantilever tip was reflected toward a position-sensitive photodetector, which provides feedback signals to piezoelectric scanners that maintain the cantilever tip at constant height (force

Efficient liquid exfoliation of KP₁₅ nanowires aided by Hansen's empirical theory

• Zhaoxuan Huang,
• Zhikang Jiang,
• Nan Tian,
• Disheng Yao,
• Fei Long,
• Yanhan Yang and
• Danmin Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 788–795, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.69

• concentration, centrifugation was not used. Measurement equipment UV−visible spectrophotometry was performed by using a Shimadzu UV-3101PC system. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) tests were performed in a Multimode 8 system. The Raman tests were performed on a WITec alpha300 RA confocal Raman microscopy system

Gelatin nanoparticles with tunable mechanical properties: effect of crosslinking time and loading

• Agnes-Valencia Weiss,
• Daniel Schorr,
• Julia K. Metz,
• Metin Yildirim,
• Saeed Ahmad Khan and
• Marc Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 778–787, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.68

• for 0.5 h imaged under liquid conditions by AFM are shown in Figure 1. Incorporating lysozyme as a protein drug up to an initial loading of 3 mg per 20 mg gelatin resulted in particles with comparable size (242.67 ± 11.32 nm), size distribution (0.132 ± 0.04), and a negative zeta potential at neutral

• significant for all different crosslinking times. The absolut Young's modulus values are significantly lower than reported before [17]. This can be due to different reasons such as a batch to batch variance of gelatin as a natural product, a difference in the measurement speed during the AFM experiment and

• , Germany). Fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran 70 kDa (FITC-dextran) was purchased from TdB (Upsala Sweden). Pall Minimate™ tangential flow filtration capsules 300 kDa were obtained from VWR International GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany). Silicon wafers used as substrates in AFM experiments were derived from Plano

Direct measurement of surface photovoltage by AC bias Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Yasuhiro Sugawara and
• Yan Jun Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 712–720, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.63

• microscopy (AFM) [22]. KPFM measures the contact potential difference (CPD), which corresponds to the difference in work function between the tip and the sample, consecutively in darkness and under illumination, to determine the SPV values: SPV = CPDlight − CPDdark. In this method, the thermal drift between

• force This signal is measured with a lock-in amplifier and compensated by VAC control, yielding the SPV value. To improve the sensitivity, ωm is usually tuned to the second (first) resonance frequency of the cantilever, while the first (second) resonance frequency is assigned to the AFM measurement [29

• time [31]. To reach sufficient sensitivity, the value should typically be larger than 1 V. Experimental The experiments were performed by customized ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM, UNISOKU) at a temperature T of 78 K with a base pressure below 5 × 10−11 Torr. The NC

Reliable fabrication of transparent conducting films by cascade centrifugation and Langmuir–Blodgett deposition of electrochemically exfoliated graphene

• Teodora Vićentić,
• Stevan Andrić,
• Vladimir Rajić and
• Marko Spasenović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 666–674, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.58

• wavelength of 660 nm and the number of graphene layers was calculated for each sample, taking into account an absorption of 2.3% for each layer of graphene, as in the work by Bonaccorso and co-workers [43]. Although atomic force microscopy (AFM) is often employed to characterize graphene films [2][12][14][44

• ], applying that method to films that consist of heterogeneous flakes, such as Langmuir–Blodgett-deposited films, is more difficult. Since the thickness varies from flake to flake, only an average film thickness over a certain area makes sense. The area over which average thickness can be measured with AFM is

• limited by the scan size, at a maximum of about 50 µm × 50 µm. The best method for measuring the average film thickness with AFM is to make scans that show the underlying substrate as well as the film itself and to make a histogram of measured heights, where a narrow peak related to the substrate and a

Quantitative dynamic force microscopy with inclined tip oscillation

• Philipp Rahe,
• Daniel Heile,
• Reinhard Olbrich and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 610–619, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.53

• Philipp Rahe Daniel Heile Reinhard Olbrich Michael Reichling Fachbereich Physik, Universität Osnabrück, Barbarastrasse 7, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.13.53 Abstract In the mathematical description of dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM), the relation between the tip–surface normal

• . Experimentally, however, the sampling path representing the tip oscillating trajectory is often inclined with respect to the surface normal and the data recording path. Here, we extend the mathematical description of dynamic AFM to include the case of an inclined sampling path. We find that the inclination of

• measuring a heterogeneous atomic surface. We propose to measure the AFM observables along a path parallel to the oscillation direction in order to reliably recover the force along this direction. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; cantilever; quantitative force measurement; sampling path; Introduction

Revealing local structural properties of an atomically thin MoSe₂ surface using optical microscopy

• Lin Pan,
• Peng Miao,
• Anke Horneber,
• Alfred J. Meixner,
• Pierre-Michel Adam and
• Dai Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 572–581, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.49

• the optical contrast, one can estimate that the thickness of the more transparent areas of the MoSe2 flake is smaller than that of other regions. To visualize the CuPc molecule distribution on the MoSe2 flake, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used, and the results are shown in Figure 1b. The insets

• in Figure 1b are high-resolution AFM images of CuPc/MoSe2. The upper inset exhibits a step from the SiO2/Si substrate to the border of the MoSe2 flake, and the lower inset shows a distinct transition from the border to the center of the MoSe2 flake. The MoSe2 flake is fully covered by CuPc molecule

• pronounced correlation, which is exemplarily indicated by the dashed red circle in Figure 2a and Figure 2b. Figure 2c shows the AFM topographic image of the corresponding region of CuPc/MoSe2. The surface of the MoSe2 flake is covered by some nanoparticles marked by the dashed red circle, which were reported