Enhanced atomic corrugation in dynamic force microscopy—The role of repulsive forces

摘要

Full range two dimensional (2D) force mapping was performed by means of low temperature dynamic force microscopy (DFM) on a highly complex surface structure. For this purpose, we used a thin film of vitreous silica on a Ru(0001)-support, which is a 2D structural equivalent to silica glass. The 2D spectroscopy shows that the contrast generating shift in vertical distance between two sites on the surface is twice as large on the repulsive branch of the frequency shift-distance curve as compared to the attractive branch. The results give insight into the origin of the formation of atomic resolution in DFM.