Imaging elastic property of surfaces at nanoscale using atomic force microscope

We present a simple technique to characterize and image the distribution of local elastic property using ultrasonic atomic force microscope (UAFM). We interpret the UAFM images using simple arguments. We have demonstrated the capability of the UAFM technique to image the distribution of the local elastic property of the sample surface and semi-quantitatively map the local stiffness of the sample surface using a few selected samples. The local stiffness of the sample surface was obtained by measuring the changes in the frequency of contact resonance peak values and could verify the same using force–distance measurement at the same regions on the sample surface.