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The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM ) is being used in a wide range of
technologies including electronics, biological, chemical, aerospace, automotive,
medical, and energy industries. The materials that normally require AFM
investigation include thin and thick film
coatings, ceramics, glasses, synthetic and biological membranes,
metals, polymers, and semiconductors. The AFM is being used to study
phenomena such as abrasion, adhesion, cleaning, corrosion, etching, friction,
lubrication, plating, and polishing. AFM enables us to see the surface of a
material in atomic resolution.
The
first AFM was made by gluing a tiny shard of diamond onto one end of a tiny
strip of gold foil. A small hook at the end of the
cantilever was pressed against the surface while the sample was scanned beneath
the tip. The force between tip and sample was measured by tracking the
deflection of the cantilever. This was done by monitoring the tunneling current
at a second tip positioned above the cantilever. They could delineate lateral
features as small as 300 Å. The force microscope emerged in this way. Today the
tip-cantilever assembly typically is microfabricated from Si or Si3N4.
The force between the tip and the sample surface is very small, usually less than 10-9 N. The detection system does not measure force directly. It senses the deflection of the microcantilever.
The
beam-bounce method is a widely used technique. In this system an optical beam
is reflected from the mirrored surface on the backside of the cantilever onto a
position-sensitive photo detector. In this arrangement a small deflection of the
cantilever will tilt the reflected beam and change the position of beam on the
photo detector. Motion of the cantilever has a strong effect on the laser
output, and this is exploited as a motion detector.
Operation:
An atomically sharp tip is scanned over a surface
with feedback mechanisms that enable the piezo-electric scanners to maintain the
tip at a constant force (to obtain height information), or height (to obtain
force information) above the sample surface. Tips are typically made from Si3N4
or Si, and extended down from the end of a cantilever. The nanoscope AFM head
employs an optical detection system in which the tip is attached to the
underside of a reflective cantilever. A diode laser is focused onto the back of
a reflective cantilever. As the tip scans the surface of the sample, moving up
and down with the contour of the surface, the laser beam is deflected off the
attached cantilever into a dual element photodiode. The photo detector measures
the difference in light intensities between the upper and lower photo detectors,
and then converts to voltage. Feedback from the photodiode difference signal,
through software control from the computer, enables the tip to maintain either a
constant force or constant height above the sample. In the constant force mode
the piezo-electric transducer monitors real time height deviation. In the
constant height mode the deflection force on the sample is recorded.
The
acronym STM is used for either scanning tunneling microscope or scanning
tunneling microscopy.
The
STM can obtain images of conductive surfaces at an atomic scale 2 × 10-10
m or 0.2 nanometer, and expected to be used for manipulating individual atoms, trigger
chemical reactions.
STM
employs principles of quantum mechanics. An atomically sharp probe (the tip) is
moved over the surface of the material under study, and a voltage is applied
between probe and the surface. The STM will get within a
few nanometers of what it is observing. Depending on the voltage electrons will
"tunnel" (this is a quantum-mechanical effect) or jump from the tip to
the surface (or vice-versa depending on the polarity), resulting in a weak
electric current. The size of this current is exponentially dependent on the
distance between probe and the surface. For a current to flow the
substrate being scanned must be conductive. Insulators cannot be scanned through
the STM.
A feedback loop keeps the tunneling current constant by adjusting the distance between the tip and the surface (constant current mode). This adjustment is done by placing a voltage on the electrodes of a piezoelectric element. By scanning the tip over the surface and measuring the height (which is directly related to the voltage applied to the piezo element), it is possible to reconstruct the surface structure of the material being measured. High-quality STMs can reach sufficient resolution to show single atoms. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is used in industrial and fundamental research to obtain atomic-scale images of metal surfaces. It provides a three-dimensional profile of the surface, which is useful for investigating surface roughness, surface defects at molecular level.
The
electron cloud associated with metal atoms at a surface extends a very small
distance above the surface. When a very sharp tip which
has been treated so that a single atom projects from its end is brought
sufficiently close to such a surface, there is a strong interaction between the
electron cloud on the surface and that of the tip atom, and an electric
tunneling current flows when a small voltage is applied. At a separation of a
few atomic diameters, the tunneling current rapidly increases as the distance
between the tip and the surface decreases. This changes in tunneling
current with distance results in atomic resolution if the tip is scanned over
the surface to produce an image.
Normally, the resolution of STM is better than AFM because of the
exponential dependence of the tunneling current on distance. The force-distance
dependence in AFM is more complex when characteristics such as tip shape
and contact force are considered. STM is generally applicable only to conducting
samples while AFM is applied to both conductors and insulators.
AFM offers the advantage that the writing voltage and tip-to-substrate
spacing can be controlled independently, whereas with STM the two parameters are
integrally linked.
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