AFM University Introduction to Atomic Force Microscopy by Paul West

« Cover
« Foreward
« Chapter 1
 
1.1. History
1.2. Comparison
1.3. Enabling Nanotechnology
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 « Chapter 3
 « Chapter 4
 « Chapter 5
 « Chapter 6
 « Chapter 7
« Appendix A
« Appendix B
« Appendix C
« Appendix D
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Chapter 1
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C)
Motion Control – Precise motion control technology is required to accurately scan and position the probe in an AFM at the nanometer scale. Such accurate motion control technology allows cost effective motion control at a level not achievable with other methods.
These three unique characteristics may be applied to other technological and scientific areas such as data storage, genetic engineering and nanorobotics.

1.1 History of AFM

Magnification of the vertical surface features of an object, those features leaving the horizontal plane and extending in the vertical direction, have historically been measured by a stylus profiler. An example of an early profiler is shown in Figure 1-4. This profiler, invented by Schmalz1 in 1929, utilized an optical lever arm to monitor the motion of a sharp probe mounted at the end of a cantilever. A magnified profile of the surface was generated by recording the motion of the stylus on photographic paper. This type of “microscope” generated profile “images” with a magnification of greater than 1000X.
FIGURE 1-4 Light Lever design used for one of the early designs of a surface profiler in the 1920’s. This profiler had a vertical resolution of approximately 25nm.

A common problem with stylus profilers was the possible bending of the probe from collisions with surface features. Such “probe bending”

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