Opportunities in high-speed atomic force microscopy

Benjamin P. Brown, Loren Picco, Mervyn J. Miles*, Charl F J Faul

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The atomic force microscope (AFM) has become integrated into standard characterisation procedures in many different areas of research. Nonetheless, typical imaging rates of commercial microscopes are still very slow, much to the frustration of the user. Developments in instrumentation for "high-speed AFM" (HSAFM) have been ongoing since the 1990s, and now nanometer resolution imaging at video rate is readily achievable. Despite thorough investigation of samples of a biological nature, use of HSAFM instruments to image samples of interest to materials scientists, or to carry out AFM lithography, has been minimal. This review gives a summary of different approaches to and advances in the development of high-speed AFMs, highlights important discoveries made with new instruments, and briefly discusses new possibilities for HSAFM in materials science. Developments in instrumentation for "high-speed AFM" (HSAFM) have been ongoing since the 1990s, and now nanometer resolution imaging and lithography at video rate is readily achievable. This review provides a summary of different approaches to and advances in the development of high-speed AFMs, highlights important discoveries made with new instruments, and discusses new possibilities for HSAFM in materials science.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3201-3211
Number of pages11
JournalSmall
Volume9
Issue number19
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Oct 2013

Keywords

  • AFM lithography
  • atomic force microscopy
  • high-speed AFM
  • scanning probe microscopy
  • surface analysis

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  • Ionic solutions of two-dimensional materials

    Cullen, P., Cox, K., Subhan, M., Picco, L., Payton, O., Buckley, D., Miller, T., Hodge, S., Skipper, N. T., Tileli, V. & Howard, C., Mar 2017, In: Nature Chemistry. 9, 3, p. 244–249 6 p.

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