Hysteresis generated by attractive interaction: oscillating behavior of a vibrating tip-microlever system near a surface

We provide experimental evidence of hysteretic behavior of a vibrating microlever that arises when a surface approaches the microlever. An analytical solution is derived from a variational method that shows that the width of the hysteresis depends on the strength of the attractive interaction at a given driving amplitude. For a large attractive interaction, the hysteretic behavior disappears, and the oscillating amplitude of the microlever decreases as the tip is close to the surface without needing to touch the surface. As a direct consequence, the way the cycle of the hysteresis varies close to the surface can be used to measure the change in attractive interaction without disturbing the surface. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.