AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Scanning Probe Microscopy Focus Topic Friday Sessions
       Session SP+AS+BI+EM+NS+SE+SS-FrM

Paper SP+AS+BI+EM+NS+SE+SS-FrM8
Multimodal Intermittent Contact Atomic Force Microscopy: Topographical Imaging, Compositional Mapping, Subsurface Visualization and Beyond

Friday, November 14, 2014, 10:40 am, Room 312

Session: Probe-Sample Interactions and Emerging Instrument Formats
Presenter: Santiago Solares, George Washington University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Multifrequency atomic force microscopy (AFM) refers to a family of techniques that involve excitation of the microcantilever probe at more than one frequency [R. Garcia and E.T. Herruzo, Nature Nanotechnology 7, 217 (2012)]. This can be carried out in a sequential manner, varying the excitation frequency over time, as in chirp band excitation methods, or simultaneously supplying drive signals containing more than one frequency to the cantilever shaker. The latter mode of operation commonly involves the simultaneous excitation of more than one cantilever eigenmode, such that each eigenmode is used to carry out different functions. For example, in a recently developed trimodal imaging scheme for soft sample characterization [D. Ebeling, B. Eslami and S.D. Solares, ACS Nano, 7, 10387 (2013)], the fundamental eigenmode is used for topographical acquisition, as in standard tapping-mode AFM, while two higher eigenmodes are used for compositional mapping and subsurface visualization, respectively. This talk presents experimental and computational results for validated multimodal imaging schemes involving one to three eigenmodes, and discusses the expected benefits and complexities of including more than three eigenmodes.