30 Years of atomic force microscopy: Creep, hysteresis, cross-coupling, and vibration problems of piezoelectric tube scanners

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a brief history of scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) and a general insight into an atomic force microscope (AFM), including its operating principles, modes, main components and limitations for achieving high-precision nanopositioning and image scanning. A piezoelectric tube scanner (PTS) is made of a piezoelectric material (PZM) and used in an AFM to position a sample in the sub-nanometric range. As atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are becoming workhorses in investigations in the field of nanometric-range surface profiling of material and biological samples, the high-precision nano-positioning of their PTS is a major requirement for high-speed imaging. The scanning speed of a commercial AFM is limited by the positioning accuracy of its scanner which has the following problems: (i) creep effect in slow-speed scanning; and (ii) hysteresis effect during large-range scanning (which both result in inaccurate reference motion tracking); (iii) cross-coupling effect among the axes of the scanner; and (iv) vibration effect at high frequencies due to its mechanical properties. During the last three decades, high-speed imaging using an AFM has been attempted by applying a suitable controller, using alternative scanning methods or changing the hardware setup.