Abstract
In this paper, we report on atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigation of a self-assembledmonolayer (SAM) system - octadecylphosphonic acid (OPA) deposited on mica. Withthe deposition methods employed in this work, the SAM presents a partial coverage, i.e.,the OPA covers only a fraction of the mica surface and, therefore, some bare micaregions are observed. Using standard intermittent contact AFM(IC-AFM) techniques (with medium to high oscillation damping), the topographic profileof this system clearly shows the flat SAM on top of the mica surface. However, when asmall oscillation damping mode is employed, the topographic profile is inverted, i.e., themica regions appear higher than the surrounding OPA layer. AFM experiments, carriedout to assess the origin of this effect, yield strong evidences that it is related to thepresence of a water contamination layer on the bare mica regions only. A semi-quantitativemodel is utilized to understand the experimental results.
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