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Adopting Fast Imaging in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

Application Notes

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a well-established surface characterization technique for high-resolution visualization and studies of local material properties. Despite a broad acceptance of this technique by researchers in academia and industry, relatively slow scanning rates for collecting images of surface structures are considered as one of major obstacles for its broader and more productive use in applications. The key issues of AFM are the time needed to measure tip-sample interactions when the oscillating probe taps a sample surface, and the time required for a piezo-scanner to adjust the sample-probe distance in response of the obtained data. These demands can be met by using the probes with resonant frequencies above 1 MHz, designing fast scanners with effective resonance frequency of tens and hundreds of kHz, and the implementation of high-speed electronics for microscope control and data collection. The technique of fast imaging were developed by Ando and colleagues [1] with a primary goal of video-rate visualization of biological processes in physiological buffers. Amplitude modulation(AM) mode is the primary technique applied for this purpose. High-speed imaging in liquid media is substantially assisted by over-damping of AFM probe oscillation that reduces a time delay in measurements at single location to the time scale of one or a few micro seconds (μs) with high-frequency probes. Monitoring of fast in-vivo processes or other dynamic surface phenomena is the important but not the only advantage provided by fast imaging. The possibility of quick survey of large and multiple surface areas is a major benefit to any microscopic technique in providing statistically-sound description of sample morphology and structure. Now this has been successfully achieved by AFM.

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