Novel operation mode for eliminating influence of inclination angle and friction in atomic force microscopy

The accuracy of topography imaging in contact force mode of atomic force microscopy (AFM) depends on the one-to-one corresponding relationship between the cantilever deflection and the tip–sample distance, whereas such a relationship cannot be always achieved in the presence of friction and incline angle of sample surface. Recently, we have developed a novel operation mode in which we keep the van der Waals force as constant instead of the applied normal force, to eliminate the effect of inclination angle and friction on topography imaging in the contact force mode. We have improved our AFM to enable the new operation mode for validation. Comparative experiments have been performed and the results have shown that the effect of friction and inclination angle on topography imaging in contact mode of AFM can be eliminated or at least decreased effectively by working in the new operation mode we present.