Effects of air damping on quality factors of different probes in tapping mode atomic force microscopy

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Abstract The AFM probe in tapping mode is a continuous process of energy dissipation, from moving away from to intermittent contact with the sample surfaces. At present, studies regarding the energy dissipation mechanism of this continuous process have only been reported sporadically, and there are no systematic explanations or experimental verifications of the energy dissipation mechanism in each stage of the continuous process. The quality factors can be used to characterize the energy dissipation in TM-AFM systems. In this study, the vibration model of the microcantilever beam was established, coupling the vibration and damping effects of the microcantilever beam. The quality factor of the vibrating microcantilever beam under damping was derived, and the air viscous damping when the probe is away from the sample and the air squeeze film damping when the probe is close to the sample were calculated. In addition, the mechanism of the damping effects of different shapes of probes at different tip–sample distances was analyzed. The accuracy of the theoretical simplified model was verified using both experimental and simulation methods. A clearer understanding of the kinetic characteristics and damping mechanism of the TM-AFM was achieved by examining the air damping dissipation mechanism of AFM probes in the tapping mode, which was very important for improving both the quality factor and the imaging quality of the TM-AFM system. This study’s research findings also provided theoretical references and experimental methods for the future study of the energy dissipation mechanism of micro-nano-electromechanical systems.

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