A unifying view on some experimental effects in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy

Several experimental effects that occur in tapping-mode atomic force micros copy are examined: apparent hysteresis effects in force probes and frequenc y sweeps and distortions in imaging. It is found through examinations of th e phase space that they can all be reduced to one common cause: the existen ce of more than one stable state of the tip vibration for certain parameter s. It is shown that the experimental effects can be explained considering o nly the phase space under the assumption that measurement noise exists. Num erical simulations confirm the theoretical and experimental findings. (C) 1 999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)06010-7].