Design, modeling and fabrication of contact stiffness calibration samples for CR-AFM

This thesis presents a method to experimentally calibrate the contact stiffness of an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever tip in contact with a surface, which is a critical step in the measurement of nano-mechanical properties. The calibration exploits the relationship between contact resonance (CR) frequency and contact stiffness during contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM). We present design, modeling, fabrication and characterization of a novel calibration sample, which consists of a series of rigid copper disks of varying diameter on top of a soft PDMS substrate. Larger disks produce larger contact stiffness, so a range of known contact stiffness is achieved with a range of metal disk sizes.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Sihan

Contributors dc:contributor

• King, William P.

• contact stiffness
• AFM
• calibration

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2015 by Sihan Chen. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105279

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105279