This article describes how one of the biggest challenges in designing of high-speed intermittent contact atomic force microscope (AFM) is the construction of a fast amplitude detector. The measurement techniques commonly used in commercial microscopes, such as RMS to DC converters or lock-in...

Titanium films of 120 nm thickness were magnetron sputtered on glass substrates at room temperature, and subsequently they were annealed under flowing oxygen atmosphere at different temperatures and time. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to study topographic characteristics of the films,...

The self-assembling behavior and inhibition effect of dodecanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on copper surface were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrochemical methods. The assembling process was monitored by AFM phase images. The assembling time influences the...

In this paper, we report our investigation on the monolayer characteristics of a nontoxic, biocompatible, and biodegradable polymer chitosan (CHS) using Langmuir–Blodgett technique. It has been observed that pure CHS do not form stable monolayer. However, when CHS is mixed with arachidic acid...

HfN and VN thin films were deposited onto silicon and 4140 steel substrates with r.f. reactive magnetron sputtering by using Hf and V metallic targets with 4-inch diameter and 99.9% purity in argon/nitrogen atmosphere, applying a substrate temperature of 250°C and a pressure of 1.2 × 10-3...

Both ferroelectric Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) and K0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (KBT) are considered as the best known lead-free materials. In this experiment, we prepared NBT and KBT thin films on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by metalorganic solution deposition. The structural properties and surface morphologies were...

We propose two simple methods that transform a force curve obtained by a surface force apparatus (SFA) into a density distribution of a liquid near a surface of the SFA probe. The transform methods are derived based on the statistical mechanics of simple liquids, where the liquid is an ensemble...

Thin films of pure silver were deposited on glass substrate by thermal evaporation process at room temperature. Surface characterization of the films was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Thickness of the films varied between 20 nm and 60 nm. XRD analysis...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to study the hollow cavity formation mechanisms of the L-arginine phosphate monohydrate (LAP) crystals. Hollow cavities are formed through three modes. During 2D nucleation growth, initially formed 2D cavity prevents the growth around it layer-by-layer...