Tendency in tip polarity changes in non-contact atomic force microscopy imaging on a fluorite surface

• Bob Kyeyune,
• Philipp Rahe and
• Michael Reichling

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 944–950, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.72

• . Keywords: atomic resolution imaging; calcium fluoride surface; interaction force; non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM); tip change; Introduction Non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) [1] is a surface science tool that has been used to atomically resolve surfaces of semiconductor and

• ‘dark’. In NC-AFM, the frequency shift Δf is proportional to the weighted average of the tip–sample interaction force gradient [30]. Attractive forces mostly exhibiting a positive force gradient are considered as negative and yield a negative Δf according to a generally accepted convention. When

Stiffness calibration of qPlus sensors at low temperature through thermal noise measurements

• Laurent Nony,
• Sylvain Clair,
• Daniel Uehli,
• Aitziber Herrero,
• Jean-Marc Themlin,
• Andrea Campos,
• Franck Para,
• Alessandro Pioda and
• Christian Loppacher

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 580–602, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.50

• ru(z) = z + A1(1 − cos(u)) is the instantaneous tip–surface position, and z is the shortest distance between the tip and the surface during one oscillation cycle. Thus, if A1 and k1 are properly calibrated, the interaction force may be quantified, however, through non-trivial inversion procedures [13

• be an advantage over the current method. During the thermal noise measurement (Sz(f)), the qPlus sensor is located far from the sample such that no interaction force may develop between tip and surface. All inputs to the microscope are grounded (e.g., high voltage lines of the X, Y, and Z scanner

Control of morphology and crystallinity of CNTs in flame synthesis with one-dimensional reaction zone

• Muhammad Hilmi Ibrahim,
• Norikhwan Hamzah,
• Mohd Zamri Mohd Yusop,
• Ni Luh Wulan Septiani and
• Mohd Fairus Mohd Yasin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 741–750, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.61

• catalyst’s surface. Carbon atoms are adsorbed by the catalyst and deposited by diffusion to form nanotubes through continuous stacking. The weak interaction force between the catalyst particle and the substrate lifts the particles as the nanotubes grow, forming CNTs with catalyst particles at the tip. CNTs

• are formed with catalyst particles at the bottom if the catalyst–substrate interaction force is more substantial [23]. Nevertheless, the rapid growth of CNTs was observed from the catalytic reaction within the flame environment. Because of the coupled energy and mass transfer phenomena, the

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

• 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

• amplitudes, but they can qualitatively explain the behavior of Δf–Vdc curves. Experimental Figure 4 shows the block diagram of AFM and high–low KPFS using AC bias voltages with high and low frequencies. The FM method was used to detect the tip–sample interaction force. The cantilever displacement signal

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

• the tip approaches the sample surface, an interaction force is generated that deflects (bends or stretches) the probe cantilever. As the AFM probe moves across the sample surface (in the X and Y directions), morphological information is obtained over the entire scan area. Its tip structure and the

• interaction force between the particle and the surface. A new colloidal AFM probe was proposed by Daboss et al. [14]. These conductive spherical boron-doped diamond (BDD)-AFM probes allow electrochemical force spectroscopy. The physical robustness of these bifunctional probes and the excellent electrochemical

• to other probes, which can link macromechanics, micromechanics and nanomechanics well under certain conditions. Conventional AFM probes used for interaction force testing have sharp tips and have a small contact area with the surface contact. To study interaction properties on the surface of micro

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

• tip–sample interaction. However, because of the macroscopic size of the tuning fork, the high stiffness of the sensor goes together with a low resonance frequency typically around 30 kHz. This substantially limits the minimally measurable tip–sample interaction force gradients such that very small AFM

• constant is generally much smaller than the measured derivative of the tip–sample interaction force [61]. The force constant of a rectangular cantilever and its first flexural mode stiffness, respectively, are given by: where ρSi = 2331 kg/m3 and ESi = 1.69 × 1011 N/m2 are the density and the elastic

• measurement of small magnetic forces and for MFM with optimized lateral resolution. To obtain atomic resolution, cantilevers with a higher stiffness are required to meet the stability criteria: or where Fts is the tip–sample interaction force. From Equation 9, the cantilever stiffness must surpass the highest

Micro-structures, nanomechanical properties and flight performance of three beetles with different folding ratios

• Jiyu Sun,
• Pengpeng Li,
• Yongwei Yan,
• Fa Song,
• Nuo Xu and
• Zhijun Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 845–856, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.75

• , it was found that their flexibility can increase their mean lift coefficient [21]. In rhinoceros beetles, the elytra is also involved in aerodynamics during takeoff, producing an interaction force between the elytra and the hind wings [22]. To avoid damage or hinder the movement on the ground, the

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

• interaction force, the measurement observables, and the probe excitation parameters is defined by an average of the normal force along the sampling path over the oscillation cycle. Usually, it is tacitly assumed that tip oscillation and force data recording follows the same path perpendicular to the surface

• of a tip moved perpendicular to a surface for a given force curve. Inversion formulae are available that allow for the extraction of the interaction force from measured frequency-shift data [4][5]. A tacit assumption of all prevalent algorithms for force inversion is that the axis of data acquisition

• interaction force by applying known inversion strategies [2][4][5]. Next, the tip inclination is set to α = 12.5° within the xts–zts plane as case (2) shown in yellow in Figure 3b and Figure 3c. The corresponding Δf(2)() curve (dash-dotted yellow in Figure 3e) is different from the blue Δf(1)() curve. This

A new method for obtaining model-free viscoelastic material properties from atomic force microscopy experiments using discrete integral transform techniques

• Berkin Uluutku,
• Enrique A. López-Guerra and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1063–1077, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.79

• ][9][10][11]. With regards to viscoelasticity, efforts that incorporate classical viscoelastic theory [12][13][14][15][16] rely on force–distance curves [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], which describe the dependence of the probe–sample interaction force with respect to the probe–surface

Comprehensive review on ultrasound-responsive theranostic nanomaterials: mechanisms, structures and medical applications

• Sepand Tehrani Fateh,
• Lida Moradi,
• Elmira Kohan,
• Michael R. Hamblin and
• Amin Shiralizadeh Dezfuli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 808–862, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.64

• the behavior of the interaction force and its properties. The equation that describes an interaction between two rigid spheres is named after Leoing. An interaction between “n” compressible spheres in a compressible fluid is also described in [90]. Although all the previously mentioned equations are

Local stiffness and work function variations of hexagonal boron nitride on Cu(111)

• Abhishek Grewal,
• Yuqi Wang,
• Matthias Münks,
• Klaus Kern and
• Markus Ternes

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 559–565, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.46

• measurements. By taking a 2D cut at constant force through the 3D stack, we obtain a topography at a constant tip–substrate interaction force, which allows us to visualise the corrugation between rim and valley areas (see Figure 4a). Figure 4c shows different line profiles corresponding to constant force

Protruding hydrogen atoms as markers for the molecular orientation of a metallocene

• Linda Laflör,
• Michael Reichling and
• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1432–1438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.127

• between experiment and simulation might also reflect a more general feature of repulsive mode imaging. While the tip–surface interaction force curves in the attractive region differ significantly from each other for different tip-terminating species, the force curves in the repulsive region are so steep

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• down the sample using the z-piezo of the scanner, causing intermittent contact between the cantilever and the sample [25]. The maximum interaction force is computed and used as feedback by the controller, providing fine force control, reducing shear forces and thus preserving the tip and the sample [26

Influence of the magnetic nanoparticle coating on the magnetic relaxation time

• Mihaela Osaci and
• Matteo Cacciola

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1207–1216, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.105

• ., surface-to-surface separation between nanoparticles), and on the surface density of the polymer coating layer. Thus, the model uses the van der Waals interaction force equation, as follows [21]: where ri and rj are spherical particle radii of the i-th and j-th nanoparticles, is the versor of the

Quantitative determination of the interaction potential between two surfaces using frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy

• Nicholas Chan,
• Carrie Lin,
• Tevis Jacobs,
• Robert W. Carpick and
• Philip Egberts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 729–739, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.60

• spectroscopy measurements in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) environment. The tip geometry, which is initially unknown and potentially irregularly shaped, is determined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. It is then used to generate theoretical interaction force–displacement relations, which are

• topography, among other parameters. In order to determine the interaction force behavior as a function of the separation distance, we measured the frequency shift of the oscillating cantilever as a function of the separation distance (Δf–d curves) between a silicon AFM probe and a diamond sample. An

• analytical relationship between the resonance frequency shift and the tip–sample interaction force in FM-AFM was first derived by Giessibl [42] and is seen in the following equation: In Equation 1, Δf represents the change in the primary flexural resonance frequency of the cantilever near the surface, fres

Stochastic excitation for high-resolution atomic force acoustic microscopy imaging: a system theory approach

• Edgar Cruz Valeriano,
• José Juan Gervacio Arciniega,
• Christian Iván Enriquez Flores,
• Susana Meraz Dávila,
• Joel Moreno Palmerin,
• Martín Adelaido Hernández Landaverde,
• Yuri Lizbeth Chipatecua Godoy,
• Aime Margarita Gutiérrez Peralta,
• Rafael Ramírez Bon and
• José Martín Yañez Limón

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 703–716, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.58

• perpendicular to the cantilever and f(t) is the interaction force between the cantilever and the surface expressed by the Derjaguin–Muller–Toporov (DMT) model [1] as Here, H is the Hamaker constant, R is the tip radius, E* is the reduced elastic modulus between the tip and the sample, a0 is the interatomic

Current measurements in the intermittent-contact mode of atomic force microscopy using the Fourier method: a feasibility analysis

• Berkin Uluutku and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 453–465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.37

• the work of Hembacher and co-workers [37], the an values correspond to higher harmonics of the cantilever oscillation, as indicated in Equation 10, where the tip–sample interaction force exhibits short range compared to the full cantilever oscillation: The an values decrease rapidly with increasing n

• effective mass of the cantilever, f0 its natural frequency, k its stiffness and Q its quality factor: Fexcitation is the sinusoidal driving force and the tip–sample interaction force, Finteraction, is based on the Hamaker equation [42]. The simulation parameters are provided in Table 1. In the power

Atomic-resolution imaging of rutile TiO₂(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Daiki Katsube,
• Shoki Ojima,
• Eiichi Inami and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 443–449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.35

• results confirmed that the (1 × 2) surface prepared in this study is the same surface as in the previous studies [22][27][28][32]. Figure 3 shows STM and NC-AFM images and the height profiles obtained from the same surface area. Since STM and NC-AFM use different feedback signals (interaction force for NC

Nonclassical dynamic modeling of nano/microparticles during nanomanipulation processes

• Moharam Habibnejad Korayem,
• Ali Asghar Farid and
• Rouzbeh Nouhi Hefzabad

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 147–166, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.13

• remarkable impact on a reliable estimation of the dynamical behavior of AFM [19]. Sharifi et al. simulated the interaction force between the AFM probe and surface. They used the force calculation capability of AFM and artificial neural network for simulation. The results showed that their proposed neural

Development of a new hybrid approach combining AFM and SEM for the nanoparticle dimensional metrology

• Loïc Crouzier,
• Alexandra Delvallée,
• Sébastien Ducourtieux,
• Laurent Devoille,
• Guillaume Noircler,
• Christian Ulysse,
• Olivier Taché,
• Elodie Barruet,
• Christophe Tromas and
• Nicolas Feltin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1523–1536, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.150

• . In contact mode, the interaction force is kept constant during the scanning thanks to a feedback loop that controls the tip–sample distance. This mode is not really suitable for NP imaging because the NPs might be displaced by the tip over the sample. To avoid this effect, the intermittent contact

Review of time-resolved non-contact electrostatic force microscopy techniques with applications to ionic transport measurements

• Aaron Mascaro,
• Yoichi Miyahara,
• Tyler Enright,
• Omur E. Dagdeviren and
• Peter Grütter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 617–633, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.62

• Giridharagopal and co-workers [22]. FF-trEFM captures the full dynamics of an oscillating cantilever when an interaction force between the tip and sample is turned on. An overview of this technique is shown in Figure 5 (reproduced from [51]). Description and implementation To implement FF-trEFM requires the

Intuitive human interface to a scanning tunnelling microscope: observation of parity oscillations for a single atomic chain

• Sumit Tewari,
• Jacob Bakermans,
• Christian Wagner,
• Federica Galli and
• Jan M. van Ruitenbeek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 337–348, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.33

• an embedded atom potential that measures pair interactions, the effect of coordination number is automatically accounted for within the approximate atomic interaction force. Another interesting phenomenon from the electronic point of view that was also found experimentally [8] was that the

Investigation of CVD graphene as-grown on Cu foil using simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy

• Majid Fazeli Jadidi,
• Umut Kamber,
• Oğuzhan Gürlü and
• H. Özgür Özer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2953–2959, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.274

• interaction force is in repulsive regime. This behavior, which has been observed ever since the very early STM results of the HOPG surface, is shown to be the case in graphene surface as well. Hence atomic relaxations might be quite influential in STM imaging of graphene. The contrast mechanisms could be

Quantitative comparison of wideband low-latency phase-locked loop circuit designs for high-speed frequency modulation atomic force microscopy

• Kazuki Miyata and
• Takeshi Fukuma

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1844–1855, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.176

• the FPGA to enable measurement of the frequency response of the PLL itself. In the measurements, we modulated the phase to induce Δω. This method perfectly reproduces what happens in actual FM-AFM experiments, in which the tip–sample interaction force first induces a phase shift of the cantilever

Imaging of viscoelastic soft matter with small indentation using higher eigenmodes in single-eigenmode amplitude-modulation atomic force microscopy

• Miead Nikfarjam,
• Enrique A. López-Guerra,
• Santiago D. Solares and
• Babak Eslami

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1116–1122, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.103

• model with the parameters of Table 1. The results show: (a) the peak tip–sample interaction force, and (b) the maximum indentation depth, with respect to amplitude setpoint ratio for AM-AFM using the first eigenmode (red line), AM-AFM using the second eigenmode (blue line), and bimodal AFM using the