Dynamics and control of tapping tip in atomic force microscope for surface measurement applications

In tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TM-AFM), the vibro-contact response of a resonating tip is used to measure the nanoscale topology and other properties of a sample surface. However, the nonlinear tip-surface interactions can affect the tip response and destabilize the tapping mode control. Especially it is difficult to obtain a good scanned image of high adhesion surfaces such as polymers and biomolecules using conventional tapping mode control. In this study, theoretical and experimental investigations are made on the nonlinear dynamics and control of TM-AFM. Also we report the surface adhesion is an additional important parameter to determine the control stability of TM-AFM. In addition, we proved that it was adequate for the soft and high adhesion sample to be modeled with JKR contact to obtain a reasonable tapping response in AFM.