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An Operating Method with Lateral Scan for Reducing the Error in Topography Caused by the Tip-Sample Angle in Atomic Force Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2010

Fa-Quan Zhou*
Affiliation:
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China Key Laboratory of Micro-Systems and Micro-Structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China
Xue-Zeng Zhao
Affiliation:
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China Key Laboratory of Micro-Systems and Micro-Structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China
Fei Wang
Affiliation:
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China Key Laboratory of Micro-Systems and Micro-Structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China
Yue-Yu Wang
Affiliation:
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province 150001, China
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The atomic force microscopes (AFM) images are obtained by keeping the bending of the cantilever unchanged in contact mode. However, it is found that changes in the tip-sample angle during parallel scan result in error in the topographic image. It is also discovered that measurement results obtained in the blind scan region contained large errors. In contrast, regions opposite the blind scan region gave more reliable result. To eliminate this topographic error caused by change in the tip-sample angle, a new operating method with lateral scan is utilized in AFM. Comparative experiments have been performed, and the results show that the error could be eliminated or decreased by using the operating method.

Type
Atomic Force and Atom Probe Applications
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2010

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References

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