High-Speed Tapping-Mode Atomic Force Microscopy Using a Q-Controlled Regular Cantilever Acting as the Actuator: Proof-Of Experiments

Abstract

We present the proof-of-principle experiments of a high-speed actuationmethod to be used in tapping-mode atomic force microscopes (AFM). In this method, we do not employ a piezotube actuator to move the tip or the sample as in conventional AFM systems, but, we utilize a Q-controlled eigenmode of a cantilever to perform the fast actuation. We show that the actuation speed can be increased even with a regular cantilever.