Ma. Unger et al., TIP-SAMPLE INTERACTIONS - EXTRACTION OF SINGLE MOLECULAR PAIR POTENTIALS FROM FORCE CURVES, Journal of vacuum science & technology. B, Microelectronics and nanometer structures processing, measurement and phenomena, 14(2), 1996, pp. 1302-1307
This article describes a method for extracting the true tip-sample pot
ential from an experimental force curve in atomic force microscopy. Th
is potential is not the negative integral of the force curve, Rather,
the potential is a more complicated function of the force curve and ca
ntilever spring constant, Lf information about the shape of the tip is
known, a decorrelation may be performed to extract molecular pair pot
entials from the total tip-sample potential. Applications and limitati
ons of this method are discussed. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.