Theory of elastic tip–surface interactions in atomic force microscopy
- 1 March 1991
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Vacuum Society in Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures
- Vol. 9 (2) , 479-482
- https://doi.org/10.1116/1.585550
Abstract
We present a first-principles study of elastic surface deformations, limits of atomic resolution, and of atomic-scale friction in atomic force microscopy (AFM). In the case of a Pd AFM tip interacting with a graphite surface, we find that atomic resolution can be achieved in a narrow load range near almost-equal-to 10(-8) N (per Pd tip atom). For these loads, we determine the microscopic friction coefficient to be mu almost-equal-to 10(-2).This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Theoretical interpretation of atomic-force-microscope images of graphiteSurface Science, 1989