Tip Shape Effects on Surface Trench Characterization with Amplitude Modulation AFM

In the present work, characterization of the surface trenches with amplitude modulation AFM (AM-AFM) is simulated and the effects of the tip shape on the resulting images are investigated. The simulated system includes a recently developed gold coated AFM probe which interacts with a sample including a surface trench or a single-atom vacancy. In order to examine the behavior of the above system including different transition metals, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with Sutton-Chen (SC) interatomic potential is used. In this study, an online imaging simulation of the probe and the sample is performed, and the effects of the tip apex radius, the tip cone angle, the probe tilt angle, the tip apex atoms number, and the tip axis direction with respect to the FCC lattice structure on the resulting images are studied.

کلیدواژه ها:

Trench characterization ، Amplitude modulation AFM ، Tip shape effects ، Molecular Dynamics simulation ، Sutton-Chen potential