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US 2009/0013770 A1Published application
Material property measurements using multiple frequency atomic force microscopy
AssigneeAsylum Research Corporation
InventorsRoger Proksch, Roger C. Callahan
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Abstract
Apparatus and techniques for extracting information carried in higher eigenmodes or harmonics of an oscillating cantilever or other oscillating sensors in atomic force microscopy and related MEMs work are described. Similar apparatus and techniques for extracting information using contact resonance with multiple excitation signals are also described.
Claims3
A method of operating an atomic force microscope, comprising:
- using a feedback loop to control the distance between the base of the cantilever and the sample surface to maintain the probe tip of the cantilever in a pre-established relationship with respect to the surface of the sample in the Z direction while scanning the sample by creating relative movement between the probe tip of the cantilever and the sample;
- exciting the chip of the cantilever at two or more synthesized frequencies that have been summed together by a circuit element;
- providing each synthesized frequency as a reference signal to a lock-in amplifier;
- and
- measuring the amplitude and/or phase of the cantilever at the different excitation frequencies.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.