The influence of imaging conditions on the appearance of lattice-resolved AFM images of mica surfaces

The effect of imaging environments and imaging parameters on the lattice-resolved AFM images of mica surfaces has been investigated. As the force-contrast of an AFM image is determined by the tip-surface interactions, the appearance of the AFM images changes accordingly when the force applied to the tip, the scanning direction, or the imaging liquid used is changed. All these factors can modify the details of the tip-surface contact situation so as to affect both the vertical repulsive and the direction-dependent frictional forces, resulting in the superposition of local distortions and other anomalies onto the atomically resolved images of the mica surface.