Analysis of tip effects on the dynamic characteristics of V-shaped atomic force microscope probes

Abstract

When an atomic force microscope (AFM) operates in a dynamic mode, the AFM probe is vibrated in a high frequency. Each vibration mode of the cantilevered probe has a different modal sensitivity that is defined as the change in frequency due to a change in the contact stiffness, and the scanned image contrast is significantly dictated by this sensitivity. This paper shows, by the finite element method, the significant effects of various tip lengths on the resonant frequencies and modal sensitivities for a commercial AFM V-shaped probe.