Atomic Force Microscopy
History of AFM
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was developed to overcome
limitation of STM technique and study electrically non-conductive
materials.
Binnig and Quate demonstrated the ideas of AFM for the first time in
1986 using an ultra-small probe tip at the end of a cantilever (Phys.
Rev. Letters, 1986, Vol. 56, p 930).
Wickramsinghe et al. developed an AFM setup with a vibrating
cantilever technique in 1987, (J. Appl. Phys. 1987, Vol. 61, p 4723),
which used the light-lever mechanism.
The first AFM based on STM sensing
STM based AFM
STM
Phys. Rev. Letters, 1986, Vol. 56, p 930
The first AFM based on STM sensing
• In STM based AFM, tunneling current was measured to find out
deflection of cantilever
• Alignment of STM tip on AFM cantilever is difficult (sensitivity of
~0.01 Å) but extremely sensitive to surface conditions
• Thermal drifts, local changes in barrier height affect force
measurements
• But it opens the idea to develop a wide variety of SPM techniques.
A surface profiler invented in 1929 by Schmalz
Schmalz 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.
Light-lever detection based on laser and photodiode array
Laser: highly dense and thus excellent spatial resolution, as small as high sensitivity over
the photodiode detector;
Photodiode: high sensitivity for detection at 2 dimension.
Atomic Forces: High resolution than stylus scanning
Surface profiler
AFM
Photodiode
Laser
STM
Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
General components and functions
Fc
AFM imaging
Raster Scanning + height profiling
-Piezo rasters or scans in the x-y direction
across the sample surface
↓
-Cantilever deflects (δ) in response to an a
topographical feature (hill or valley)
↓ Feedback loop
-System continuously changes in response to
an experimental output (δ= cantilever
deflection which is the feedback parameter)
The resolution of the 2D scanning -Computer adjusts the piezo z-displacement
depends on the step size and the to keep δ constant = "setpoint"
number of scanning lines, as well ↓
as the tip sharpness Error signal (actual signal-set point) used to
produce a topographical (height) map in the
z-direction of the surface
Atomic force interaction
• Using AFM, one can measure the force between atoms at the tip
and the sample which are located as close as 0.1–100 nm.
• The forces can be classified into attractive and repulsive forces.
• For attractive forces are van der Waals interaction, electrostatic
force and chemical force etc.
• The repulsive forces are hard sphere repulsion, Pauli-exclusion
interaction and electron–electron Coulomb interaction etc.
• In general, the repulsive forces are very short-range forces
Atomic interaction at different tip-sample
distances
Retracting
Examples of cantilevers
Si3N4, Si etc.
Different spring constants and resonant frequencies
AFM image acquisition at constant force
Mironov: Fundamentals of scanning probe microscopy, 2004
AFM image acquisition at average distance
Mironov: Fundamentals of scanning probe microscopy, 2004
Methods used to acquire images
Contact vs. non-contact modes
Contact modes
attractive or repulsive
Balance between atomic and elastic forces
Small stiffness – high sensitivity, gentle to the sample
Tip breakage, surface damages
Not suitable for soft samples (biological)
Constant force
Constant average distance
AFM imaging modes
< 0.5 nm probe- 0.1-10 nm probe- 0.5-2 nm probe-
surface separation surface separation surface separation
Contact mode (left): tip remains in continuous contact with sample and
the deflection of cantilever is kept constant.
Non-contact mode (middle): the tip is oscillated at the resonance
frequency and the amplitude of the oscillation is kept constant.
Tapping mode (Right): somewhere between the contact and non-contact
mode.
Non-contact vs. tapping mode
• Both are based on a Feedback Mechanism of constant oscillation
amplitude.
• Non-contact mode: amplitude set as ~ 100% of “Free” amplitude;
• Tapping mode: amplitude set as ~ 50 -60% of “Free” amplitude.
• Tapping mode provides higher resolution with minimum sample
damage.
• Most of times, non-contact mode is operated as tapping mode.
Advantages of contact mode scanning
Non-Contact vs. Contact Through Water
Non-Contact Contact
Comparison between the three scanning modes:
damage to the sample
Contact Non-contact Tapping
Pros • Fast scanning, • Long probe lifetime • Allows high
• Good for rough resolution of samples
samples
Cons • Influenced by • Lower resolution • Slower scan speed
frictional and adhesive • Contamination surface can
forces interfere with oscillation
• Can damage sample • Usually need high vacuum
for best imaging
Imaging by contact and non-contact (tapping)
mode
•Tapping mode image show no surface alteration and better resolution
•Contact imaging shows clear surface damage. Material has been removed by the
scanning tip, while in other cases, additional oxide growth or more subtle changes may
occur.
•This type of surface alteration often goes undetected since not all researchers check for
damage by rescanning the affected area at lower magnification
AFM imaging: from µm to nm, to Å
Magnetic bits of a zip disk Carbon Nanotubes
AFM imaging: from µm to nm, to Å
Clean glass surface: roughness ~ 0.8 nm
AFM imaging:
Thickness of the graphene sheets
Other use of AFM technique apart from imaging
Contact-Mode scanning
•Lateral force microscope (LFM) --- surface friction.
•Force modulation microscope (FMM) --- detecting surface stiffness or
elasticity, adhesion
Tapping-Mode scanning
•Phase mode imaging --- detecting surface structure or elasticity property
AFM tip shape
Normal Tip Super tip Ultra lever
Diamond-coated tip FIB-sharpened tip Gold-coated Si3N4 tip
AFM tip design
•Rectangle and triangle (V) shaped cantilever beams are two basic
cantilever geometries.
•Both are suitable for contact, intermittent contact and noncontact
modes of operation.
•A higher mechanical stability with respect to lateral distortion
makes V-shape cantilevers more preferable for contact mode AFM.
Comparison between AFM and Electronic
Microscopes
• Optical and electron microscopes can easily generate two dimensional
images of a sample surface, with a magnification as large as 1000X for an
optical microscope, and a few hundreds thousands ~100,000X for an
electron microscope.
• However, these microscopes cannot measure the vertical dimension (z-
direction) of the sample, the height (e.g. particles) or depth (e.g. holes,
pits) of the surface features.
• AFM, which uses a sharp tip to probe the surface features by raster
scanning, can image the surface topography with extremely high
magnifications, up to 1,000,000X, comparable or even better than
electronic microscopes.
• The measurement of an AFM is made in three dimensions, the horizontal
X-Y plane and the vertical Z dimension. Resolution (magnification) at Z-
direction is normally higher than X-Y.
