Tapping and shear-mode atomic force microscopy using a quartz tuning fork with high quality factor

Abstract

A high-resolution atomic force microscopy using a quartz tuning fork in ambient conditions has been developed, which operates in two modes: tapping and shear modes. In our designs, a tungsten tip, with radius about 30-50nm, was attached to one prong of the tuning fork. Furthermore, a combination of the transducer and AFM NT-206 (Belarus) allows the assembly of system of tuning fork gluing tungsten tip to retain a high quality factor of up to 9000. These results lead to the possibility of commercial applications of a simple, user-friendly and advantage system for atomic force microscopy.