Video rate atomic force microscopy using low stiffness, low resonant frequency cantilevers

High speed atomic force microscopy (AFM) images have been collected at 25 ms/frame using "passive mechanical feedback," in which the cantilever is forced to respond to the sample surface at frequencies considerably greater than its resonant frequency. Through finite element modeling of the cantilever as it responds to the sample surface, the simulated trajectory and full transient response of the cantilever have been obtained. The resultant simulated image is found to agree well with the experimental high speed AFM images, showing that cantilever imaging at these high frequencies can be well understood in terms of continuum mechanics. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.