Experienced User of Solid Platinum Tip ´RMN 12PT-400B´

stsolong posted on Thu, Aug 30 2012 3:15 AM

rated by 0 users

Hello,

I just got started to use the solid platinum tip ´RMN 12PT 400B´ for C-AFM. As it is introduced on the website, ´RMN 12PT 400B´ is a solid platinum tip, ideal for C-AFM, because compared to SCM-PIC tip, it has no wear problem of  the metal coating.

First of all, RMN tip looks quite different from other normal Si tips(down left picture). The instructions for use of RMN probes says users should focus near the tip apex. What I did is shown in the down right picture. Did I understand it correctly? Because in the last two days I encountered serious engagement problem.

I wonder if the tip is vertically pointing down, the tip apex should not be seen by the camera.  Just like other Si tips, the tip is optically covered by the cantilever. So I guess the solid platinum tip is somehow tilted...Does it have an effect on topography images?

Finally, the tip was successfully engaged. But the result achieved by RMN tip was not  good. Although I adjusted ´deflection setpoint´, gains, the topography image didn´t have the trend to be good. The down left image was achieved by RMN tip and the right one was by SCM-PIC tip.

 I tried RMN tip on a sample with  nano-scaled particles. The results were appalling...It looked like the RMN tip hardly followed the surface. But one good thing is that the current image seems not be affected a lot by the bad topography image.