Adaptive Multi-Loop Mode Atomic Force Microscope Imaging

Abstract

An adaptive multi-loop mode (AMLM) imaging of atomic force microscope (AFM) is proposed. Due to its superior image quality and less sample disturbances, tapping mode (TM) imaging is currently the de facto most widely used imaging technique. However, the speed of TM-imaging is substantially limited, and becoming the major bottleneck of this technique. The proposed AMLM-imaging overcomes the limits of TM-imaging by utilizing control techniques to substantially increase the speed of TM-imaging while preserving the advantages of TM-imaging. The AMLM-imaging is tested and demonstrated through imaging a PtBA sample in experiments, and the experiment results demonstrated that the image quality over large-size imaging (50 μm by 25 μm) achieved at the scan rate of 25 Hz is at the same level of that when using TM-imaging at 1 Hz, while the probe-sample interaction force is smaller than that of the TM-imaging at 2.5 Hz.