AFM
Atomic Force Microscopy
Characterisation Installation 4
AFM is a surface sensitive technique permitting to obtain a microscopic image of the topography of a material surface. Typical lateral image sizes are within a range of only a few Nanometers to several 10 Micrometers, whereas height changes of less than a Nanometer may be resolved.
A fine tip attached to a cantilever is scanned across the material surface and enables to measure height changes via a laser that is reflected from the rear side of the cantilever onto a segmented photodiode. The position of a laser spot on the photodiode permits to track height changes as e.g. due to a nano-particle on the surface or an atomic terrace of a single crystal surface. A feedback loop controls the tip-surface distance and therefore ensures stable imaging conditions.
Different operation modes like contact or non-contact mode can be used to optimize the imaging conditions with highest lateral resolution on one hand and least sample interaction on the other hand.
Additional surface properties may be obtained for each point of the scan like friction force by lateral force imaging and magnetization properties by magnetic force imaging. Elasticity maps of heterogeneous sample surfaces can be obtained by non-contact phase imaging utilizing the phase shift arising from the local penetration behaviour of the tip into the surface.
WARNING: Access to CNRS temporarily not available, but the technique is available at the other sites
AFM: Bruker Dimension 3100 AFM
Surface Science Lab @ Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology
AFM
Optical microscope to visualize sample: 5 Mpixel digital camera; 180 µm to 1465 µm viewing area; digital zoom and motorized focus
Typical X-Y scan range of 90 µm by 90 µm, Z range of 10 µm (Z sensor noise level < 50 pm in closed-loop)
Motorized position stage (X-Y axis) 180 mm × 150 mm (< 3 µm repeatability)
UHV AFM
AFM @ DESY NanoLab
AFM Veeco IV + Dimension 3100 controller (N8)
AFM
Current Sensing AFM
Piezoresponse AFM
Photoconductive AFM
Direct piezoelectric Force Microscopy
Electrostatic Force Microscopy
Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy
Scanning thermal microscopy
3omega AFM
Keysight 5100 AFM for only topography measurements
Keysight 5500LS for electrical measurements
Keysight 5500 for thermal analysis
Maximum scanning area: 50x50 μm
Maximum depth range: 8 μm (if the sample is too rough, we are not able to measure)
Ultra-sharp single crystal diamond probes ensure a state of the art lateral resolution at ambient conditions
Z resolution: 0.1 nm in ambient conditions
X, Y: maximum range 50 μm each, lateral resolution 0.01 μm
Z: maximum range 10 μm, resolution 0.1nm
X, Y stage with 15 cm of range and Z stepper motor with 3 cm of range
AFM
