ATOMIC FORCE

MICROSCOPY
PRESENTED BY: TONI BETH G. LOPEZ
PHY903D
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE (AFM)

In photo: AFM from Advanced Undergraduate Laboratory, University of Toronto

(https://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~phy326/afm/index.htm)
BRIEF HISTORY
In 1986, Gerd Binnig
(German) and Calvin
Quate (American)
demonstrated for the first
time the ideas of AFM,
which used an ultra-
small probe tip at the end
of a cantilever (Phys.
Rev. Letters, 1986, Vol.
56, p 930).
BRIEF HISTORY
In 1987, Chandra Wickramsinghe (Sri Lankan-British) et al.
developed an AFM setup with a vibrating cantilever technique (J.
Appl. Phys. 1987, Vol. 61, p 4723), which used the light-lever
mechanism.
Image from: http://www.afmworkshop.com/images/tt-afm-02.jpg
Image from: http://www.afmworkshop.com/images/tt-afm-02.jpg
position sensitive
photodetector
https://www.bruker.com/fileadmin/user_upload/1-
Products/SurfaceAnalysis/AFM/Drawing-of-how-AFM-works.png
http://www.azonano.com/images/Article_Images/ImageForArticle_2429(3).jpg
COMPARISON OF AFM TO OTHER
ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPES
Optical and electron microscopes can
easily generate two dimensional images
of a sample surface, with a magnification
as large as 1000X for an optical
microscope, and a few hundreds
thousands ~100,000X for an electron
microscope.
COMPARISON OF AFM TO OTHER
ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPES (CONT.)
However, these microscopes cannot
measure the vertical dimension (z-
direction) of the sample, the height
(e.g. particles) or depth (e.g. holes,
pits) of the surface features.
COMPARISON OF AFM TO OTHER
ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPES (CONT.)
AFM, which uses a sharp tip to probe the
surface features by raster scanning, can
image the surface topography with
extremely high magnifications, up to
1,000,000X, comparable or even better
than electronic microscopes.
COMPARISON OF AFM TO OTHER
ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPES (CONT.)
The measurement of an AFM is made in
three dimensions, the horizontal X-Y
plane and the vertical Z dimension.
Resolution (magnification) at Z-direction
is normally higher than X-Y.
ATOMIC INTERACTION
ATOMIC INTERACTION
THREE TYPES OF IMAGING
MODES
Contact
Non-contact
Tapping
THREE TYPES OF IMAGING
MODES
Contact
The
deflection of
cantilever is
kept
constant.
THREE TYPES OF IMAGING
MODES
Contact
is heavily
influenced by
frictional and
adhesive forces,
and can damage
samples and
distort image data.
THREE TYPES OF IMAGING
MODES
Non-Contact
The tip is
oscillated at the
resonance
frequency and
the amplitude of
the oscillation is
kept constant.
THREE TYPES OF IMAGING
MODES
Non-Contact
generally provides
low resolution and
can also be
hampered by the
contaminant (e.g.,
water) layer which
can interfere with
oscillation.
THREE TYPES OF IMAGING
MODES
Tapping
Between the non-contact and
contact
Takes advantages of the two
above. It eliminates frictional
forces by intermittently contacting
the surface and oscillating with
sufficient amplitude to prevent
the tip from being trapped by
adhesive meniscus forces from
the contaminant layer.
NON-CONTACT VS. TAPPING
NON-CONTACT VS. TAPPING
CONTACT VS. NON-CONTACT
AFM TIPS
AFM TIPS

or Focused Ion Beam

sharpened tip
SAMPLE IMAGES USING AFM

Nanographene atom
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/scientists-can-now-see-individual-atoms-2012-9
 8-HYDROXYQUILINE ASSEMBLED
CLUSTERS ON CU(111)

http://www.microscopy-analysis.com/editorials/editorial-listings/researchers-reveal-
first-afm-image-hydrogen-bond
YTTERBIUM OXIDE

https://alexlemayscience.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/an-atom-is-a-very-
abstract-thing/
 DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

https://www.bruker.com/products/surface-and-dimensional-analysis/atomic-force-
microscopes.html