Abstract
Tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a quartz tuning fork (QTF) is presented. The QTF is used as a force sensor to detect the interaction between the AFM probe tip and the sample surface. The first part of the chapter presents a tungsten probe QTF-AFM, in which a tungsten probe is glued on one of the arms of the QTF for being used as an AFM probe. A counterweight tungsten probe with the identical geometry is glued on the other arm of the QTF. At first, the oscillation of the probe, which is necessary for the tapping-mode AFM, is applied by using the self-oscillation function of the QTF. Then the self-oscillation oscillator is replaced by an external piezoelectric oscillator for improvement of the stability of the QTF-AFM. In the second part of the chapter, a glass probe is employed to increase the Q-factor and the force sensitivity of the QTF probe unit. The fabrication of the glass probe as well as a method for effectively gluing the glass probe on the QTF arms is also presented.
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