Optical-beam-deflection atomic force microscopy: The NaCl (001) surface

Abstract

We have imaged, in ultrahigh vacuum, the (001) surface of NaCl using an optical-beam-deflectin force microscope operating in the short-range repulsive regime. The design and performance characteristics of the microscope are given, and the observed atomic corrugations are compared with those deduced from He-atom scattering experiments.

Atomic force microscopy imaging of T4 bacteriophages on silicon substrates

“…The noise sources affecting the optical beam deflection AFM have been discussed by Meyer and Amer [13], who have derived an expression for the contribution due to shot noise in the diode detector. For our laser with its beam waist diameter of about 10 J,Lm, Figure 3 shows an atomic resolution image of a cleaved mica surface taken in air with a with a cantilever force of "'5x10-8 N. Rather large corrugations of 5 A peak-to-peak were observed.…”

“…One direction corresponds to motion of the cantilever normal to the sample surface and the other to a twisting of the cantilever due to frictional forces encountered during the scan. The latter can be recorded along with the normal image as a measure of these frictional forces [13].…”

Crystal Lattice Imaging Using Atomic Force Microscopy

“…Atomic resolution has been successfully obtained on graphite (Albrecht & Quate, 1988;Sugawara et al, 1991), molybdenum sulfide (Albrecht & Quate, 1988), boron nitride (Albrecht & Quate, 1987), germanium , sapphire (Gan et al, 2007), albite (Drake & Hellmann, 1991), calcite (Ohnesorge & Binnig, 1993) and sodium chloride (Meyer & Amer, 1990). The AFM has also been used to investigate the crystal lattice structure of the tetrahedral layer of clay minerals in 2:1 layer structures, such as muscovite (Drake et al, 1989), illite (Hartman et al, 1990) and montmorillonite (Hartman et al, 1990).…”

Classification of Scanning Probe Microscopies

“…Although it is not the goal of this paper to review instrumentation and design, just one option to measure forces in AFMs, the optical lever deflection system [44,53], should be described, since it is widely used in commercial instruments and offers a number of analytical advantages. Figure 4 shows a scheme of this system.…”