NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BAND EXCITATION AFM METHOD: EXAMINING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EXCITATION SIGNALS AND THE CORRESPONDING RESPONSE BEHAVIOR AT THE CANTILEVER TIP

摘要

We present numerical simulations of a recently developed atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique known as the Band Excitation Method, developed by Jesse et al. [2007 Nanotechnology 18 435503]. With this technique an AFM microcantilever is simultaneously excited and the response measured over a continuum band of frequencies. The purpose of this work is to introduce an analytical model providing insight into the dynamics of the Band Excitation Method, which can help in the translation of the acquired signals into sample properties. As an initial step we examine the cantilever response to two distinct excitation signals, the chirp and sine functions, both of which have uniform frequency content, differing only in the phase content.