RAPID IMAGING OF CALCITE CRYSTAL-GROWTH USING ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPYWITH SMALL CANTILEVERS

Using a 26 mu m cantilever with a resonant frequency of 100 kHz in wat er, we were able to obtain sequential images of calcite crystal steps growing from a screw dislocation. The small cantilever permitted acqui sition of 250 nm images at scan rates of 104 lines/s (1.2 s/image). Fr om this sequence we directly measured critical step lengths (the lengt h of the shortest step that can advance) of 6-21 nm. These values prov ided a rough estimate of (0.25 +/- 0.13 J/m(2)) for the step energy pe r unit length per unit step height on the (104) face of calcite. (C) 1 998 American Institute of Physics.