THE DISSIPATION ENERGY IN TAPPING MODE OF ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE DUE TO LIQUID BRIDGE

轻敲模式下的相位像反映的是探针样品间接触分离过程的能量耗散, 大气环境下的能量耗散主要由液桥引起. 因此为理解成像机理, 本文分析轻敲模式下液桥的形成和破碎的动力学过程, 得到此种模式下的耗散能.     

STUDY ON A DYNAMICS MODEL OF TAPPING MODE AFM AND ENERGY DISSIPATION MECHANISM$^{\bf 1)}$

轻敲模式下探针从远离到间歇性接触样品表面,是一个连续的能量耗散过程.针对该连续过程的能量耗散机理研究仅零星存在于各个文献之中,对于连续过程中各个阶段的能量耗散机理也没有一个系统的解释和实验验证.本文提出了新的位移激励下原子力显微镜探针-样品系统简化模型并得到了一维振子系统等效阻尼的计算方法,并通过该方法计算了探针在远离样品表面时的空气黏性阻尼和靠近样品时的空气压膜阻尼,分析了探针从远离样品到间歇性接触样品表面这一过程中的环境耗散机理变化,得到了原子力显微镜系统理论品质因数与探针工作位置的关系曲线;在此基础上设计了轻敲模式下的微悬臂梁扫频实验,得到了系统实验品质因数与探针工作位置的关系曲线,进而验证了理论模型的准确性. 本文通过对轻敲模式下AFM环境耗散机理进行理论分析和实验验证,希望可以对轻敲模式下AFM动力学特性及其阻尼作用机理有更近一步的认识,同时对微纳米机电系统 (MEMS/NEMS) 能量耗散机理的研究提供理论参考和实验方法.     

轻敲模式下 AFM 动力学模型及能量耗散机理研究

轻敲模式下探针从远离到间歇性接触样品表面,是一个连续的能量耗散过程.针对该连续过程的能量耗散机理研究仅零星存在于各个文献之中,对于连续过程中各个阶段的能量耗散机理也没有一个系统的解释和实验验证.本文提出了新的位移激励下原子力显微镜探针-样品系统简化模型并得到了一维振子系统等效阻尼的计算方法,并通过该方法计算了探针在远离样品表面时的空气黏性阻尼和靠近样品时的空气压膜阻尼,分析了探针从远离样品到间歇性接触样品表面这一过程中的环境耗散机理变化,得到了原子力显微镜系统理论品质因数与探针工作位置的关系曲线;在此基础上设计了轻敲模式下的微悬臂梁扫频实验,得到了系统实验品质因数与探针工作位置的关系曲线,进而验证了理论模型的准确性. 本文通过对轻敲模式下AFM环境耗散机理进行理论分析和实验验证,希望可以对轻敲模式下AFM动力学特性及其阻尼作用机理有更近一步的认识,同时对微纳米机电系统 (MEMS/NEMS) 能量耗散机理的研究提供理论参考和实验方法.      

用侧向力显微镜对不同非晶态GeSbTe薄膜的摩擦性能研究

采用侧向力显微镜研究了磁控溅射方法制备的GeSbTe薄膜在大气环境中的纳米级摩擦性能,考虑了相对湿度、扫描速度及表面粗糙度对其摩擦性能的影响,对比不同成分的GeSbTe薄膜的摩擦特性.结果表明:在相对湿度较大时,扫描速度对针尖和GeSbTe薄膜之间的摩擦力影响很大;在其它条件相同、外加载荷较大时,同一载荷下的摩擦力与表面粗糙度呈线性关系,但在外加载荷较小的情况下,二者呈现非线性变化规律;相对湿度对Ge2Sb2Te5薄膜和针尖的粘附力影响较GeSb2Te4薄膜弱,且粘附力使得摩擦系数减小;在同一相对湿度下,由于薄膜成分的变化导致硬度不同,其对薄膜的摩擦性能也有一定影响.     

A new type of atomic force microscope based on chaotic motions

Local flow variation (LFV) method of non-linear time series analysis is applied to develop a chaotic motion-based atomic force microscope (AFM). The method is validated by analyzing time series from a simple numerical model of a tapping mode AFM. For both calibration and measurement procedures the simulated motions of the AFM are nominally chaotic. However, the distance between a tip of the AFM and a sample surface is still measured accurately. The LFV approach is independent of any particular model of the system and is expected to be applicable to other micro-electro-mechanical system sensors where chaotic motions are observed or can be introduced.     

Influence of atomic force microscope (AFM) probe shape on adhesion force measured in humidity environment

In micro-manipulation, the adhesion force has very important influence on behaviors of micro-objects. Here, a theoretical study on the effects of humidity on the adhesion force is presented between atomic force microscope （AFM） tips and substrate. The analysis shows that the precise tip geometry plays a critical role on humidity depen- dence of the adhesion force, which is the dominant factor in manipulating micro-objects in AFM experiments. For a blunt （paraboloid） tip, the adhesion force versus humidity curves tends to the apparent contrast （peak-to-valley corrugation） with a broad range. This paper demonstrates that the abrupt change of the adhesion force has high correla- tion with probe curvatures, which is mediated by coordinates of solid-liquid-vapor contact lines （triple point） on the probe profiles. The study provides insights for further under- standing nanoscale adhesion forces and the way to choose probe shapes in manipulating micro-objects in AFM experiments.     

On the dynamics of tapping mode atomic force microscope probes

A?mathematical model is developed to investigate the grazing dynamics of tapping mode atomic force microscopes (AFM) subjected to a base harmonic excitation. A?multimode Galerkin approximation is utilized to discretize the nonlinear partial differential equation of motion governing the cantilever response and associated boundary conditions and obtain a set of nonlinearly coupled ordinary differential equations governing the time evolution of the system dynamics. A?comprehensive numerical analysis is performed for a wide range of the excitation amplitude and frequency. The tip oscillations are examined using nonlinear dynamic tools through several examples. The non-smoothness in the tip/sample interaction model is treated rigorously. A?higher-mode Galerkin analysis indicates that period doubling bifurcations and chaotic vibrations are possible in tapping mode microscopy for certain operating parameters. It is also found that a single-mode Galerkin approximation, which accurately predicts the tip nonlinear responses far from the sample, is not adequate for predicting all of the nonlinear phenomena exhibited by an AFM, such as grazing bifurcations, and leads to both quantitative and qualitative errors.     

MEASUREMENT OF ADHESION FORCES IN AIR WITH THE VIBRATION METHOD

The vibration method represents a practical method for the measurement of adhesion forces and adhesion force distributions. This method causes sinusoidally altemating stresses and yields detachment and contact forces between particles and substrate of the same order of magnitude. Alternating contact forces of the vibration method can cause an adhesion force intensification through flattening of asperities. The measuring principle of the vibration method and the analysis of experimental results are described in the article. Normal adhesion forces (pull-off forces) are measured using the vibration method and the colloidal probe technique. The results of both methods show good agreement for small particle sizes. The influence of the detachment force direction is shown by comparing tangential and normal adhesion forces measured using particle reentrainment in a turbulent air flow and the vibration method, respectively. The surface roughness of the substrate and the relative humidity are shown to significantly influence the measured adhesion forces. For the calculation of the adhesion forces, an approach by Rabinovich was combined with approximations of plastic micro asperity flattening. The Rabinovich approach accounts for roughness effects on the van der Waals force by incorporating the rms roughness of the interacting surfaces. rms-values of the particles and substrates were measured with atomic force microscopy at different scanning areas.     

Analysis of humidity-dependent adhesion between a probe tip and a surface

Adhesive forces commonly exhibit a monotonic increase or a maximum with increasing relative humidity. However, anomalous behavior has been reported. Here, a numerical model of adhesive forces, comprised mainly of capillary and van der Waals forces, between a tip and a surface is established. It is described by a power law that considers the geometry, the liquid bridge wetting radius, the contact angle, and the separation distance. Capillary forces (sum of surface tension and Laplace pressure) and van der Waals forces are calculated. The latter cannot be neglected in the adhesion even at high humidity. Decrease in adhesion with increasing relative humidity can be attributed to a blunt tip shape, which is validated by experimental data. Specifically, the decrease in adhesion is attributed primarily to a transition from a rounded to a blunt tip shape. Structuring objects at the micro- or nanoscale can either increase or decrease adhesion as a function of relative humidity. This has a wide range of applications in robotic manipulation and can provide a better understanding of adhesion mechanisms in atomic force microscopy in ambient air.     

Noise influenced elastic cantilever dynamics with nonlinear tip interaction forces

In this work, the authors study the influence of noise on the dynamics of base-excited elastic cantilever structures at the macroscale and microscale by using experimental, numerical, and analytical means. The macroscale system is a base excited cantilever structure whose tip experiences nonlinear interaction forces. These interaction forces are constructed to be similar in form to tip interaction forces in tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM). The macroscale system is used to study nonlinear phenomena and apply the associated findings to the chosen AFM application. In the macroscale experiments, the tip of the cantilever structure experiences long-range attractive and short-range repulsive forces. There is a small magnet attached to the tip, and this magnet is attracted by another one mounted to a high-resolution translatory stage. The magnet fixed to the stage is covered by a compliant material that is periodically impacted by the cantilever’s tip. Building on their earlier work, wherein the authors showed that period-doubling bifurcations associated with near-grazing impacts occur during off-resonance base excitations of macroscale and microscale cantilevers, in the present work, the authors focus on studying the influence of Gaussian white noise when it is included as an addition to a deterministic base excitation input. The repulsive forces are modeled as Derjaguin–Muller–Toporov (DMT) contact forces in both the macroscale and microscale systems, and the attractive forces are modeled as van der Waals attractive forces in the microscale system and magnetic attractive forces in the macroscale system. A reduced-order model, based on a single mode approximation is used to numerically study the response for a combined deterministic and random base excitation. It is experimentally and numerically found that the addition of white Gaussian noise to a harmonic base excitation facilitates contact between the tip and the sample, when there was previously no contact with only the harmonic input, and results in a response that is nominally close to a period-doubled orbit. The qualitative change observed with the addition of noise is associated with near-grazing impacts between the tip and the sample. The numerical and experimental results further motivate the formulation of a general analytical framework, in which the Fokker–Planck equation is derived for the cantilever-impactor system. After making a set of approximations, the moment evolution equations are derived from the Fokker–Planck equation and numerically solved. The resulting findings support the experimental results and demonstrate that noise can be added to the input to facilitate contact between the cantilever’s tip and the surface, when there was previously no contact with only a harmonic input. The effects of Gaussian white noise are numerically studied for a tapping mode AFM application, and it is shown that contact between the tip and the sample can be realized by adding noise of an appropriate level to a harmonic excitation.     

Nano-tribological study on a super-hydrophobic film formed on rough aluminium substrates

A novel super-hydrophobic stearic acid (STA) film with a water contact angle of 166^o was prepared by chemical adsorption on aluminum wafer coated with polyethyleneimine (PEI) film. The micro-tribological behavior of the super-hydrophobic STA monolayer was compared with that of the polished and PEI-coated Al surfaces. The effect of relative humidity on the adhesion and friction was investigated as well. It was found that the STA monolayer showed decreased friction, while the adhesive force was greatly decreased by increasing the surface roughness of the Al wafer to reduce the contact area between the atomic force microscope (AFM) tip and the sample surface to be tested. Thus the friction and adhesion of the Al wafer was effectively decreased by generating the STA monolayer, which indicated that it could be feasible and rational to prepare a surface with good adhesion resistance and lubricity by properly controlling the surface morphology and the chemical composition. Both the adhesion and friction decreased as the relative humidity was lowered from 65% to 10%, though the decrease extent became insignificant for the STA monolayer. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50375151, 50323007, 10225209) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJCX-SW-L2)     

Frequency shifts and analysis of AFM accompanying with coupled flexural–torsional motions

In a conventional dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM), observing the flexural characteristics of a cantilever subjected to the tip–sample interaction is for extracting the topography and the material properties of a sample’s surface. Recently, Sahin et al. (2007) found that it is essential for understanding surface properties to design a cantilever with an eccentric tip and observe its coupled flexural–torsional characteristics. For effectively analyzing the flexural and torsional signals simultaneously, one has to find out the mode of a cantilever that the ratio of the tip gradient of flexural deformation and the tip torsional angle is comparable. Moreover, the development of an analytical model that can accurately simulate the surface-coupled dynamics of the cantilever is important for quantitative and qualitative understanding of measured results. In this paper, an analytical model of a cantilever with an eccentric tip and subjected to a nonlinear tip–sample force is established. The analytical solution is derived. It is found that the first two modes are the flexural motion and the third mode is the coupled flexural–torsional motion. Finally, the influences of several parameters on the tip angle ratio and frequency shift are investigated.     

Experimental simulation of capillary effect on rough flat surfaces

The movement of the liquid column inside the slit was utilized to experimentally simulate the characteristics of the capillary force per unit length for different rough flat surfaces. The movement of the liquid column was achieved by continuously changing the slit interval. The maximum climb height and contact angle of the liquid column were observed during this process to study the relationship between capillary force and contact surface roughness. Based on the assumption that the microstructures on the rough surfaces are of the same form and continuously and uniformly distributed, it is shown that the capillary force per unit length under homogeneous wetting is independent of the roughness. For heterogeneous wetting, the capillary force per unit length is positively correlated with the roughness. The results also indicate that the appearance of “contact line pinning” is caused by insufficient capillary force along the direction of liquid column movement.     

Sensitivity vector fields for atomic force microscopes

The application of the sensitivity vector fields (SVFs) for tip–sample interactions in the context of multi-mode tapping dynamics of atomic-force microscopes (AFM) is presented. SVFs represent a novel approach to accurately determine simultaneous parameter variations by exploiting the geometric features of observed chaotic dynamics. The paper also demonstrates that, in certain operating conditions, higher modes are essential to correctly predict the AFM dynamics, and they cannot be neglected. The accuracy of the SVF approach is discussed as applied to a multi-mode AFM model where mode shapes vary due to multiple parameter variations. The identifiability of various parameters based on SVF reconstruction is investigated. Several calibration issues for parameter reconstruction are observed and resolved by a specialized sample filtering and a novel correction factor.     

相对湿度对材料表面粘附力影响的研究

利用自制微摩擦及粘附力测试装置考察了在微载荷条件下,相对湿度对Si(100)材料表面粘附力的影响,分析了在大气环境中水分子的毛细作用力和范德华力对粘附力的贡献,并以BET吸附模型为基础推导出考虑湿度影响的粘附力计算公式.结果表明:在微载荷条件下,相对湿度对材料表面的粘附力影响十分显著,随着相对湿度升高粘附力增加,特别是相对湿度RH在40%～80%之间时,粘附力变化最为显著;当相对湿度RH小于20%时,范德华力大于水的毛细作用力且占主导地位;当相对湿度RH大于20%后,水分子的毛细作用力不断增加,同时范德华力因水膜的存在而降低,水的毛细作用力占主导地位.     

AFM稳定性研究

“突跳”现象严重影响着原子力显微镜(AFM)的性能。根据W igner-Seitz模型微观连续介质理论,建立了AFM针尖同试样面接触力包含斥力的数学模型;由分析力学的稳定平衡条件,发现了引起AFM“突跳”的本质是不稳定平衡点的存在;通过增加AFM悬臂梁刚度,提出了一种避免AFM“突跳”现象发生的方法,并给出仿真结果。     

Near-grazing dynamics of base excited cantilevers with nonlinear tip interactions

In this article, nonsmooth dynamics of impacting cantilevers at different scales is explored through a combination of analytical, numerical, and experimental efforts. For off-resonance and harmonic base excitations, period-doubling events close to grazing impacts are experimentally studied in a macroscale system and a microscale system. The macroscale test apparatus consists of a base excited aluminum cantilever with attractive and repulsive tip interactions. The attractive force is generated through a combination of magnets, one located at the cantilever structure??s tip and another attached to a high-resolution translatory stage. The repulsive forces are generated through impacts of the cantilever tip with the compliant material that covers the magnet on the translatory stage. The microscale system is an atomic force microscope cantilever operated in tapping mode. In this mode, this microcantilever experiences a long-range attractive van der Waals force and a repulsive force as the cantilever tip comes close to the sample. The qualitative changes observed in the experiments are further explored through numerical studies, assuming that the system response is dominated by the fundamental cantilever vibratory mode. In both the microscale and macroscale cases, contact is modeled by using a quadratic repulsive force. A reduced-order model, which is developed on the basis of a single mode approximation, is employed to understand the period-doubling phenomenon experimentally observed close to grazing in both the macroscale and microscale systems. The associated near-grazing dynamics is examined by carrying out local analyses with Poincaré map constructions to show that the observed period-doubling events are possible for the considered nonlinear tip interactions. In the corresponding experiments, the stability of the observed grazing periodic orbits has been assessed by constructing the Jacobian matrix from the experimentally obtained Poincaré map. The present study also sheds light on the use of macroscale systems to understand near-grazing dynamics in microscale systems.     

PVC发泡板受力前后微观表面形貌变化规律的AFM实验研究

本文从微观角度对软质材料之一的PVC发泡板表面形貌与承受压载之间的关系进行实验研究.应用Veeco原子力显微镜(AFM),选取全新的1cm×1cm大小的PVC实验样品,轻轻地放置于AFM样品台上.先测试和记录一定范围内的没有压载作用时试件的微观表面形貌,然后依次测试和记录承受过一定数目压载情形下的表面形貌.其中,压载通过标准计量的砝码实现,重复多次实验,将实验数据进行统计分析.结果显示,经压载作用后,PVC的微观表面特性变化明显.随着压载荷的增加,样品微观表面的高度变化量、平均高度、粗糙度等明显增加,截面起伏度也越加明显.本实验结果对于PVC材料宏观承载应用及其微观结构变化机理等方面的研究将具有一定的参考意义.     

粘着行为中预压紧力和分离速度及相对湿度对分离力影响的实验研究

在改变粘着试验中接触副预压紧力、接触副分离速度以及环境相对湿度的条件下，利用表面力仪实时测量了新鲜解理云母接触副分离过程的分离力，并观察了接触后解理云母接触区的状态．结果表明：在保持弹性接触时，预压紧力对分离力影响不大，接触材料的表面能决定分离力的强度；当预压紧力超过临界值时，接触表面发生塑性变形，在一定范围内分离力随预压紧力的增加而增大；在干接触时分离速度与分离力无直接联系，但在存在大粘度中间层液体时，分离速度的增加可使分离力显著增大；分离力随相对湿度的增加而增大．     

Bifurcations and chaos in vibrating microcantilevers of tapping mode atomic force microscopy

We study the dynamics of a microcantilever in tapping mode atomic force microscopy when it is close to the sample surface and the van der Waals force has an important influence. Utilizing the averaging method, the extended version of the subharmonic Melnikov method and the homoclinic Melnikov method, we show that abundant bifurcation behavior and chaotic motions occur in vibrations of the microcantilever. In particular, in the subharmonic Melnikov analyses, a degenerate resonance is treated appropriately. Necessary computations for the subharmonic and homoclinic Melnikov methods are performed numerically. Numerical bifurcation analyses and numerical simulations are also given to demonstrate the theoretical results.