Intermittent Contact AFM

Intermittant contact AFM enables the measurement of in-plane as well as out-of-plane properties of materials.

This tapping mode phase image shows crystalline domains of a PDA monolayer on mica. Intriguingly, the phase image reveals the underlying shear and friction properties of the surface.

Publications on this topic

"Material anisotropy revealed by phase contrast in intermittent contact atomic force microscopy," Matthew S. Marcus, Robert W. Carpick, Darryl Y. Sasaki, M .A. Eriksson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 226103 (2002).

"Phase imaging and the lever-sample tilt angle in dynamic atomic force microscopy," Matthew J. D’Amato, Matthew S. Marcus, M.A. Eriksson, Robert W. Carpick, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 4738 (2004).