Stability criterions of an oscillating tip-cantilever system in dynamic force microscopy

This work is a theoretical investigation of the stability of the non-linear behavior of an oscillating tip-cantilever system used in dynamic force microscopy. Stability criterions are derived that may help to a better understanding of the instabilities that may appear in the dynamic modes, Tapping and NC-AFM, when the tip is close to a surface. A variational principle allows to get the temporal dependence of the equations of motion of the oscillator as a function of the non-linear coupling term. These equations are the basis for the analysis of the stability. One find that the branch associated to frequencies larger than the resonance is always stable whereas the branch associated to frequencies smaller than the resonance exhibits two stable domains and one unstable. This feature allows to re-interpret the instabilities appearing in Tapping mode and may help to understand the reason why the NC-AFM mode is stable. Received 12 April 2001