Effect of excitation frequencies on phase contrast in tapping mode atomic force microscope

Abstract

There are several imaging modes in AFM, and the tapping mode is the most commonly used scanning mode. Tapping mode can acquire the height information and phase information of the sample surface, among which the phase information has more value, which can reflect the physical properties of the sample surface. In order to understand the phase imaging mechanism of AFM, this paper uses the vibration theory to derive the theoretical expression of phase, and finds that the excitation frequency will directly affect the phase contrast. Based on this, this paper finds, through theoretical and experimental analysis, that there exists an optimal excitation frequency that maximizes the phase contrast during the scanning process. These results are important for interpreting the phase image of AFM and thus optimizing the phase imaging in experiments.