Susceptibility of atomic force microscope cantilevers to lateral forces: Experimental verification

Applied Physics Letters

Volumn 83, Issue 15, 2003, Pages 3195-3197

  Sader, John E ^a   Sader, Raymond C ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

^b D F Engineering Pty Ltd   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACCELERATION; ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY; DEFORMATION; ELASTIC MODULI; FINITE ELEMENT METHOD; GRAVITATIONAL EFFECTS; TORQUE;

LATERAL FORCES;

CANTILEVER BEAMS;

EID: 0242367465     PISSN: 00036951     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1063/1.1616657     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. T. R. Albrecht and C. F. Quate, J. Appl. Phys. 62, 2599 (1987).
2. T. R. Albrecht, S. Akamine, T. E. Carver, and C. F. Quate, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 8, 3386 (1990).
3. J. E. Sader, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 2438 (2003).
4. LUSAS is a trademark of, and is available from, FEA, Ltd., Forge House. 66 High Street, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 1HN, U.K. Quadrilateral elements were used for the rectangular cantilevers and along the skewed rectangular arms of the V-shaped cantilever. Triangular elements were used near the end tip of the V shape. Thick plate elements with linear interpolation were used; finite thickness affected normal spring constants by <5% in comparison to thin plate theory (see Ref. 9). Normal spring constants at the end tips were designed to be identical.
5. J. E. Mark, Polymer Data Handbook (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999); PMMA was chosen due its resistance to (irreversible) plastic flow. PMMA exhibits (reversible) creeping flow that is insignificant over time scales required to perform measurements. Therefore, this nonideal behavior did not affect the results, see linearity in Fig. 3.
6. Bending of the rod under its own weight was small (≲1 mm at its ends), and comparable to the resolution of distance measurements (±1 mm).
7. The ratio of the torsional spring constants is identical to that of the lateral spring constants, provided both cantilevers have identical imaging tipheights, as is assumed.
8. The cantilevers were designed to have identical normal spring constants at the end tips. Variation in the normal spring constants due to off-end loading between rectangular and V-shaped cantilever is ≲5% (see Ref. 11). Accurate measurements of normal displacements, and hence, normal spring constants, were precluded by the resolution of distance measurements (±1 mm), since small deflections only are allowed (see Ref. 9).
9. S. P. Timoshenko and S. Woinowsky-Krieger, Theory of Plates and Shells (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1959).
10. Load positions δL/L<0.05 proved impractical to implement.
11. J. E. Sader, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66, 4583 (1995).