Improved Application of Carbon Nanotube Atomic Force Microscopy Probes Using PeakForce Tapping Mode

Ashley D Slattery; Cameron J Shearer; Joseph G Shapter; Adam J Blanch; Jamie S Quinton; Christopher T Gibson

doi:10.3390/nano8100807

Improved Application of Carbon Nanotube Atomic Force Microscopy Probes Using PeakForce Tapping Mode

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2018 Oct 9;8(10):807. doi: 10.3390/nano8100807.

Authors

Ashley D Slattery^{1

2}, Cameron J Shearer^{3

4}, Joseph G Shapter^{5

6}, Adam J Blanch^{7

8}, Jamie S Quinton⁹, Christopher T Gibson¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia. Ashley.slattery@adelaide.edu.au.
² Adelaide Microscopy, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Ashley.slattery@adelaide.edu.au.
³ Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia. cameron.shearer@adelaide.edu.au.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. cameron.shearer@adelaide.edu.au.
⁵ Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia. j.shapter@uq.edu.au.
⁶ Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. j.shapter@uq.edu.au.
⁷ Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia. adam.blanch@unimelb.edu.au.
⁸ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. adam.blanch@unimelb.edu.au.
⁹ Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia. Christopher.Gibson@flinders.edu.au.
¹⁰ Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia. Jamie.Quinton@flinders.edu.au.

Abstract

In this work PeakForce tapping (PFT) imaging was demonstrated with carbon nanotube atomic force microscopy (CNT-AFM) probes; this imaging mode shows great promise for providing simple, stable imaging with CNT-AFM probes, which can be difficult to apply. The PFT mode is used with CNT-AFM probes to demonstrate high resolution imaging on samples with features in the nanometre range, including a Nioprobe calibration sample and gold nanoparticles on silicon, in order to demonstrate the modes imaging effectiveness, and to also aid in determining the diameter of very thin CNT-AFM probes. In addition to stable operation, the PFT mode is shown to eliminate "ringing" artefacts that often affect CNT-AFM probes in tapping mode near steep vertical step edges. This will allow for the characterization of high aspect ratio structures using CNT-AFM probes, an exercise which has previously been challenging with the standard tapping mode.

Keywords: PeakForce tapping mode; atomic force microscope tips; carbon nanotubes; imaging artefacts; tapping mode.