Higher-mode Excitation in The Non-contact Atomic force Microscopy

In the present research, higher resonance frequencies are employed to improve the performance of the atomic force microscopy in the non-contact mode. Conventional models already used in the literature to study AFM microcantilever dynamics such as point-mass approach are not only incapable of modeling higher vibrational modes but also fail to predict microcantilever complicated dynamics with a sufficient accuracy. In this paper, the Hamilton’s extended principle is used to obtain equations governing the nonlinear oscillations of the AFM probe. Euler-Bernoulli beam assumptions and small deflection theory are assumed. The resulting partial differential equation is often converted to a set of ordinary differential equations and then this set is solved either numerically or based on perturbation methods. In the present research, however, the partial differential equation is attacked directly by a special perturbation technique. The accuracy of the present method is then verified by a combination of the Galerkin discretization scheme and a Rung - Kutta numerical solution. Finally, different behaviors of the AFM probe including static behavior, linear mode shapes and frequency response curves are investigated through several numerical simulations. It is found out that higher vibrational modes have smaller frequency shift. It is also found out that higher modes are faster in gathering surface information and also more sensitive to the excitation.