Length-extension resonator as a force sensor for high-resolution frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy in air

• Hannes Beyer,
• Tino Wagner and
• Andreas Stemmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 432–438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.38

• air using a length-extension resonator operating at small amplitudes. An additional slow feedback compensates for changes in the free resonance frequency, allowing stable imaging over a long period of time with changing environmental conditions. Keywords: ambient conditions; drift compensation

• ; frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy; high-resolution; length-extension resonator; Introduction Frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) is the method of choice to image nanoscale structures on surfaces down to the atomic level. Whereas atomic resolution is routinely achieved in ultra

• [4][5]. Recently, atomic resolution has been achieved with a qPlus sensor in air on potassium bromide and graphite [2][6]. In this paper, we demonstrate the suitability of the piezoelectric self-sensing length-extension resonator (LER) [7][8] for high-resolution FM-AFM imaging in air. The LER has a

Noise performance of frequency modulation Kelvin force microscopy

• Heinrich Diesinger,
• Dominique Deresmes and
• Thierry Mélin

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1–18, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.1

• propagation from sensor displacement noise to the Kelvin voltage output. Giessibl et al. [9] compared qPlus and length-extension resonator (LER) sensors with respect to four noise sources: thermal excitation, sensor displacement noise, oscillator noise and thermal drift noise. The impact of all noise sources