Articles

Influence of atomic force microscope (AFM) probe shape on adhesion force measured in humidity environment

Expand
  • 1. College of Physics Science and Technology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, Guangxi Province, P. R. China;
    2. Institute of Systems Biology, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China

Received date: 2013-06-16

  Revised date: 2013-11-15

  Online published: 2014-05-01

Abstract

In micro-manipulation, the adhesion force has very important influence on behaviors of micro-objects. Here, a theoretical study on the effects of humidity on the adhesion force is presented between atomic force microscope (AFM) tips and substrate. The analysis shows that the precise tip geometry plays a critical role on humidity dependence of the adhesion force, which is the dominant factor in manipulating micro-objects in AFM experiments. For a blunt (paraboloid) tip, the adhesion force versus humidity curves tends to the apparent contrast (peak-to-valley corrugation) with a broad range. This paper demonstrates that the abrupt change of the adhesion force has high correlation with probe curvatures, which is mediated by coordinates of solid-liquid-vapor contact lines (triple point) on the probe profiles. The study provides insights for further understanding nanoscale adhesion forces and the way to choose probe shapes in manipulating micro-objects in AFM experiments.

Cite this article

YANG Li;TU Yo-Song;TAN Hui-Li . Influence of atomic force microscope (AFM) probe shape on adhesion force measured in humidity environment[J]. Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, 2014 , 35(5) : 567 -574 . DOI: 10.1007/s10483-014-1813-7

Outlines

/

APS Journals | CSTAM Journals | AMS Journals | EMS Journals | ASME Journals