Adsorption of water on solid surfaces studied by scanning force microscopy

Tip-sample interaction of an oscillating tip near a surface is determined. The experimental results show that the presence of the surface can be detec ted without mechanically touching the surface. By adjusting the appropriate operating conditions of a scanning force microscope setup, tip-sample cont act can be avoided during imaging at atmospheric pressure. This allows stud y of even the softest samples. In the present work, we demonstrate that mol ecularly thin water films can be imaged with nanometer resolution on differ ent substrates such as mica, gold, and highly oriented pyrolitic graphite. Correspondingly, scanning force microscopy can be used to investigate wetti ng properties of liquids with very high spatial resolution.