Influence of Scanning Rotation on Nanoscale Artificial Strain in Open-Loop Atomic Force Microscopy

For nanoscale metrology using atomic force microscopy (AFM), it is essential to know the baseline error induced by the AFM scanning process. A systematic study has been performed using digital image correlation (DIC) to quantify the influence of scanning rotation angle on the artificial strain (error) in an open loop AFM. It is found that significant artificial strain has been induced by the scanning rotation angle, demonstrating that highly accurate metrology can only be performed in an open loop AFM when the scan angle is held constant during imaging.