Related papers: Thermal noise calibration of functionalized cantil…
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool to investigate interaction forces at the micro and nanoscale. Cantilever stiffness, dimensions and geometry of the tip can be chosen according to the requirements of the specific application,…
The Transient Fluctuation Theorem is used to calibrate an Atomic Force Microscope by measuring the fluctuations of the work performed by a time dependent force applied between a collo{\"i}dal probe and the surface. From this measure one can…
The functionalization of an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilever with a colloidal bead is a widely used technique when the geometry between the probe and the sample must be controlled, particularly in force spectroscopy. But some…
Non-invasive thermal noise calibration of both torsional and flexural eigenmodes is performed on numerous cantilevers of 10 different types. We show that for all tipless and short-tipped cantilevers, the ratio of torsional to flexural mode…
A method to precisely calibrate the oscillation amplitude in Dynamic Scanning Force Microscopy is described. It is experimentally shown that a typical electronics used to process the dynamic motion of the cantilever can be adjusted to…
An electro-mechanical setup for the measurement of AC-forces in a low-temperature tunnelling microscope has been developed, which enables extremely high force resolution. The crosstalk of vibrations onto the tunnelling current is used to…
A common use for atomic force microscopy is to quantify local forces through tip-sample interactions between the probe tip and a sample surface. The accuracy of these measurements depends on the accuracy to which the cantilever spring…
Thermal fluctuation of the cantilever position sets a fundamental limit for the precision of any Scanning Force Microscope. In the present work we analyse how these fluctuations limit the determination of the resonance frequency of the…
A general analysis of thermal noise in torsion pendulums is presented. The specific case where the torsion angle is kept fixed by electronic feedback is analyzed. This analysis is applied to a recent experiment that employed a torsion…
Atomic force microscopy cantilevers are often, intentionally or not, heated at their extremity. We describe a model to compute the resulting temperature field in the cantilever and in the surrounding fluid on a wide temperature range. In…
Experimental methods and procedures required for precision measurements of the Casimir force are presented. In particular, the best practices for obtaining stable cantilevers, calibration of the cantilever, correction of thermal and…
Measurements of the deflection induced by thermal noise have been performed on a rectangular atomic force microscope cantilever in air. The detection method, based on polarization interferometry, can achieve a resolution of 1E-14 m/rtHz in…
Spontaneous collapse models predict that a weak force noise acts on any mechanical system, as a consequence of the collapse of the wave function. Significant upper limits on the collapse rate have been recently inferred from precision…
Torsional harmonic cantilevers allow measurement of time varying tip-sample forces in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy. Accuracy of these force measurements is important for quantitative nanomechanical measurements. Here we demonstrate…
A method is presented for calibrating the higher eigenmodes (resonance modes) of atomic force microscopy cantilevers that can be performed prior to any tip-sample interaction. The method leverages recent efforts in accurately calibrating…
We report on the fabrication of sensitive nanotorsional resonators, which can be utilized as magnetometers for investigating the magnetization dynamics in small magnetic elements. The thermo-mechanical noise is calibrated with the resonator…
Oscillators based on levitated particles are promising for the development of ultrasensitive force detectors. The theoretical performance of levitated nanomechanical sensors is usually characterized by the so-called thermal noise limit…
When measuring quadratic values representative of random fluctuations, such as the thermal noise of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) cantilevers, the background measurement noise cannot be averaged to zero. We present a signal processing…
Direct time-varying tip-sample force measurements by torsional harmonic cantilevers facilitate detailed investigations of the cantilever dynamics in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy. Here we report experimental evidence that the…
Aligning a microcantilever to an area of interest on a sample is a critical step in many scanning probe microscopy experiments, particularly those carried out on devices and rare, precious samples. We report a series of protocols that…