Calibration of lateral force measurements in atomic force microscopy with a piezoresistive force sensor

Abstract

We present here a method to calibrate the lateral force in the atomic force microscope. This method makes use of an accurately calibrated force sensor composed of a tipless piezoresistive cantilever and corresponding signal amplifying and processing electronics. Two ways of force loading with different loading points were compared by scanning the top and side edges of the piezoresistive cantilever. Conversion factors between the lateral force and photodiode signal using three types of atomic force microscope cantilevers with rectangular geometries (normal spring constants from 0.092 to 1.24 N/m and lateral stiffness from 10.34 to 101.06 N/m) were measured in experiments using the proposed method. When used properly, this method calibrates the conversion factors that are accurate to +/-12.4% or better. This standard has less error than the commonly used method based on the cantilever's beam mechanics. Methods such of this allow accurate and direct conversion between lateral forces and photodiode signals without any knowledge of the cantilevers and the laser measuring system.

Analysis of stability and transparency for nanoscale force feedback in bilateral coupling

“…-k c : stiffness of the cantilever (from a hundredth up to several dozen N · m −1 ) -calibrated as it was demonstrated in [16]. Note that μN · m −1 or nN · m −1 are also consistent units, more adapted to describing nanoscale phenomena -d: deflection of the cantilever -S: sensitivity of the calibrated photodiode -V: measured output voltage As highlighted in Eq.…”

Precise and direct method for the measurement of the torsion spring constant of the atomic force microscopy cantilevers

“…Much research in recent years has focused on the development of methods for calibrating lateral forces in LFM. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] A detailed review of these methods was provided by Munz 23 or by Pettersson et al 24 The two approaches can be distinguished. In the first approach, the torsional spring constant of the cantilever and the lateral sensitivity of the position-sensitive photodiode are calibrated separately.…”

A novel and facile method for detecting the lattice orientation of MoS 2 tribological surface using the SPSA process

“…Therefore, we calculated the atomicscale friction force of the various lattice orientations for the two samples. The lateral force was obtained using the following equation by substituting the parameter values [27]:…”