Adhesion detachment and movement of gold nanoclusters induced by dynamic atomic forcemicroscopy

Abstract

Via dissipation processes in dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM), we have investigatedadhesion and frictional properties of deposited nanoclusters, under controlled ambientconditions. Specifically, we have considered gold nanoclusters with nominal diameters of 13and 24 nm physisorbed on silicon substrate. The manipulation experiment has shownunambiguously that the amplitude modulation AFM method and the calibrationprocedure adopted allow us to discern and measure the size dependence of the energydetachment threshold for deposited objects down to the nanometer scale. Moreover,allowing us to switch easily and with high repeatability between imaging andmanipulation during the AFM scans, this operational method proves to be apromising tool for inducing controlled spatial displacements at these length scales.