Revealing Contamination on AFM Cantilevers by Microdrops and Microbubbles

摘要

It is generally recognized that the resolution of atomic force microscopy (AFM) strongly depends on the geometry and chemical composition of the cantilever tip.For example,scanning a surface with a double tip results in an image with a so-called ghost,while scanning a surface with a contaminated tip may result in a larger adhesion between tip and sample,thus increasing the contact area and lowering the resolution.