Variational treatment of electrostatic interaction force in atomic force microscopy

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the mathematical model for the electrostatic interaction force between an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip and a sample surface. We formulate the electrostatic potential problem in Sobolev spaces and find the corresponding weak solution in terms of the integral potential, which can be approximated numerically by generalized Fourier series and used to find the interaction force between an AFM tip and a sample surface. The formulation of the problem in a weak (Sobolev) space setting allows us to determine the force for AFM tips of arbitrary shape. Efficiency of the method is illustrated using numerical examples for the spherical and tetrahedral AFM tips.