| US 7,451,638 B1 | ||
| Harmonic cantilevers and imaging methods for atomic force microscopy | ||
| Ozgur Sahin, Stanford, Calif. (US); Abdullah Atalar, Ankara (Turkey); Calvin F. Quate, Menlo Park, Calif. (US); and Olav Solgaard, Stanford, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Jul. 22, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/187,991. | ||
| Application 11/187991 is a division of application No. 10/801394, filed on Mar. 15, 2004, granted, now 6,935,167. | ||
| Int. Cl. H01J 37/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 73—105 | 14 Claims |
| 1. A method of operating an atomic force microscope for detecting material properties on the surface of a sample, the method
comprising:
providing a cantilever having a cantilever arm and a probe tip formed on a free end of the cantilever arm, the cantilever
arm having a shape selected to tune the fundamental resonance frequency of the fundamental mode or a resonance frequency of
a selected higher order mode so that the resonance frequency of the selected higher order mode and the fundamental resonance
frequency has an integer ratio;
vibrating the cantilever at or near the fundamental resonance frequency with a predetermined oscillation amplitude;
bringing the cantilever to the vicinity of the sample;
tapping the surface of the sample repeatedly using the probe tip; and
detecting changes in the amplitude or the phase at the frequency of a higher harmonic corresponding to the selected higher
order mode as the cantilever is deflected in response to features on the surface of the sample.
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