Scaling Force and Corrugation in AFM Image Calculations: The Graphite Surface

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Abstract
Extending the AFM-MM2 technique, a model is proposed to calculate AFM images with a good prediction of the force and the corrugation compared to the measured ones. The long-range attractive interactions between the tip body, the bulk surface, the tip apex and the surface scanned are now taken into account in optimizing, at the molecular mechanical level, the surface and tip apex atom positions upon tip approach and tip scanning. For the graphite surface, this leads to an accessible attractive-force range down to -7.7 nN and to a calculated surface corrugation larger than 0.2 Å even at low forces.