Interpreting motion and force for narrow-band intermodulation atomic force microscopy

• Daniel Platz,
• Daniel Forchheimer,
• Erik A. Tholén and
• David B. Haviland

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 45–56, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.5

• , providing deeper insight into the tip–surface interaction. We demonstrate the capabilities of ImAFM approach measurements on a polystyrene polymer surface. Keywords: atomic force microscopy; AFM; frequency combs; force spectroscopy; high-quality-factor resonators; intermodulation; multifrequency

• –surface interaction maps a drive-frequency comb to a response-frequency comb, both having the same base frequency Δω. Different drive-frequency combs can be used to place many response frequency components close to a resonance of the cantilever where they can be detected with good signal-to-noise ratio

• . In general the drive and response frequency combs could encompass more than one eigenmode of the cantilever. For a drive signal consisting of only two frequencies symmetrically placed around the first flexural resonance frequency, as illustrated in Figure 1, the response is concentrated in the narrow