The Nanoscale World

PeakForce Capture on Calcite and Mica

PeakForce Capture on Calcite and Mica
posted by Stephen Minne
Sun, May 6 2012


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Another great advantage of PeakForce Tapping, particularly when imaging at the atomic scale, is you can obtain a forces curve for any pixel in the image.

Here are two examples of force distance curves collected during Peak Force Tapping imaging.  One set of approach / retract curves was collected on calcite and the other was collected on mica.  The mica data shows a long-range repulsion which suggests the presence of an electrostatic double-layer or hydration layers of water molecules.  Additional experiments are required to further understand the source of this long-range repulsion, and its variation over individual atoms in the lattice. We are presenting it here only as an example of the capability.

It should be noted that, unlike Tapping, this spectroscopic capability is now accomplished simultaneous with imaging, thereby increasing the accuracy and confidence of the localization, as well as the speed and ease of the measurement. With PeakForce Tapping there is no ambiguity about which force curve corresponds to which atom.

Copyright (c) 2011 Bruker Instruments