The atomic force microscope (AFM) has allowed microscopists to observe surface topography of non-conductive samples on the atomic level. One AFM mode that scanned probe microscopists have recently shown an interest in is the phase lag imaging mode. It has already been demonstrated that the resulting phase lag data can be used to identify different densities of microlayered polyethylene. However a quantitative understanding of phase lag imaging has yet to be fully developed. With a better understanding of the phase lag data it may be possible to estimate the modulus or other material properties of a sample from an AFM phase image alone.

The need for better understanding phase lag data is essential to increasing the knowledge of a how a material's microstructure behaves on the nanometer scale. This investigation focused on AFM phase lag data produced while scanning microstructures with large differences in modulus values between the compositional phases.