Highly localized probing of surface nanomechanical properties with a submicron resolution can be accomplished with scanning probe microscopy (SPM). The SPM ability to probe local surface topography in conjunction with mechanical, adhesive, friction, thermal, magnetic, and electric properties is unique.1 However, the quantitative probing of the nanomechanical materials properties is still a challenge and only a few examples have been published to date.
In this note, we briefly review the latest developments in the nanomechanical probing of compliant materials (predominantly polymers). We solely focus our analysis of SPM-based approach in a so-called static force spectroscopy (SFS) mode.