An in-situ hot stage for temperature-dependent tapping-mode™ atomic force microscopy

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Abstract
Tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (TM-AFM) is a widely used method for the study of the nanometer scale morphology of soft materials such as biological samples and polymers. Many of these materials have structures and properties which are a sensitive function of temperature even below 100 °C making the control of temperature in such an instrument quite valuable. This paper describes the construction of a heater for a commercial TM-AFM which can reach surface temperatures as high as 100 °C. Temperature variations affect many experimental parameters in an atomic force microscope, and to compare images collected at different temperatures it is critical to evaluate these instrumental effects. In particular, the cantilever resonance frequency decreases as samples become hot; this effect is easily corrected by frequently resetting the drive frequency at high temperatures. As an example of the utility of this technique images of the nanoscale changes that occur prior to the bulk melting of paraffin crystals are presented.