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Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) utilize the Van der Waals forces between the surface of a sample and the probing tip of the microscope. |
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The probe, as it oscillates near its resonant frequency, is simply scanned across the sample surface . The force between the sample and tip of the probe is electronically maintained at a constant value. This keeps the distance between the two the same. The tip of the probe is repelled when the sample's elevation increases, and it is drawn closer when there is a depression. The resulting change in the probe's oscillation pattern indicates the change in elevation on the sample's |
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Veeco Multimode Nanoscope | ||||||||||
| Nanosurf Easyscan |  |
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surface. As the probe systematically scans the remaining surface, the data is automatically converted into a topographic map of the sample. Elevations obtained by AFM are in the atomic scale (angstroms to micrometers). |
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| Multimode scanning head | |||||||||||