Impact of thermal frequency drift on highest precision force microscopy using quartz-based force sensors at low temperatures

• Florian Pielmeier,
• Daniel Meuer,
• Daniel Schmid,
• Christoph Strunk and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 407–412, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.48

• detector noise. Keywords: AFM; frequency drift; length extensional resonator; needle sensor; qPlus sensor; quartz; Findings Frequency modulation atomic force microscopy [1] has become an essential tool for surface scientist‘s to study chemical and magnetic interactions at the atomic scale [2][3][4][5][6

• extensional resonator (a), tuning fork (b), standard qPlus sensors (c,d) and custom made qPlus sensors (e,f). The two coupled oscillators (LER and TF) are fixed to the substrate at their base, both prongs oscillate, no additional mass or tip is attached. Standard qPlus sensors (S and St) are based on quartz

• of 1mK the minimum detectable force gradient is about 1 mN/m for the LER and about 5 μN/m for qPlus sensors. Furthermore, the decreased deflection detector noise of custom qPlus sensors of type Ct was discussed, which is due to the reduced thickness t of the beam. (Color online). Geometry of length

Simultaneous current, force and dissipation measurements on the Si(111) 7×7 surface with an optimized qPlus AFM/STM technique

• Zsolt Majzik,
• Martin Setvín,
• Andreas Bettac,
• Albrecht Feltz,
• Vladimír Cháb and
• Pavel Jelínek

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 249–259, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.28

• parts of the qPlus sensor are large enough for assembly of the sensor simply by hand. Let us note that using a length-extensional resonator is another interesting alternative to the qPlus configuration [15][16]. The comparison of their performance is still an open issue in the community [13]. Probably