A Thin Liquid Film and Its Effects in an Atomic Force Microscopy Measurement

Recently, it has been observed that a liquid film spreading on a sample surface will significantly distort atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. In order to elaborate on the effect, we establish an equation governing the deformation of liquid film under its interaction with the AFM tip and substrate. A key issue is the critical liquid bump height y_0c, at which the liquid film jumps to contact the AFM tip. It is found that there are three distinct regimes in the variation of y_0c with film thickness H, depending on Hamaker constants of tip, sample and liquid. Noticeably, there is a characteristic thickness H* physically defining what a thin film is; namely, once the film thickness H is the same order as H*, the effect of film thickness should be taken into account. The value of H* is dependent on Hamaker constants and liquid surface tension as well as tip radius.