- Title
- Q control of an atomic force microscope microcantilever: a sensorless approach
- Creator
- Fairbairn, Matthew W.; Moheimani, S. O. Reza; Fleming, Andrew J.
- Relation
- Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems Vol. 20, Issue 6, p. 1372-1381
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/jmems.2011.2168809
- Publisher
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- The scan rate and image resolution of the atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in tapping-mode may be improved by modifying the quality (Q) factor of the AFM microcantilever according to the sample type and imaging environment. Piezoelectric shunt control is a new method of controlling the Q factor of a piezoelectric self-actuating AFM microcantilever. The mechanical damping of the microcantilever is controlled by an electrical impedance placed in series with the tip oscillation circuit. A synthetic impedance was designed to allow easy modification of the control parameters which may vary with environmental conditions. The proposed techniques are experimentally demonstrated to reduce the Q factor of an AFM microcantilever from 297.6 to 35.5. AFM images obtained using this method show significant improvement in both scan rate and image quality.
- Subject
- AFM probe; atomic force microscope (AFM); microcantilevers; microsensors; piezoelectric cantilever; piezoelectric shunt control; synthetic impedance; tapping mode AFM
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1041481
- Identifier
- uon:13904
- Identifier
- ISSN:1057-7157
- Language
- eng
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