A Guide for Atomic Force Microscopy Analysis of （原子力显微镜分析的指导）.pdf

Modern Research and Educational Topics in Microscopy. ©FORMATEX 2007 A. Méndez-Vilas and J. Díaz (Eds.) _______________________________________________________________________________________________ A Guide for Atomic Force Microscopy Analysis of Soft- Condensed Matter * M. Raposo , Q. Ferreira and P.A. Ribeiro 1CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal In this chapter one intends to give practical insights for the characterization of soft condensed matter surfaces via atomic force microscopy (AFM). The most common causes of image artifacts are reviewed, solutions to avoid them proposed and good practices suggested. Quantities used to evaluate surface topographic features and its dynamics as result image processing data are also described. Keywords AFM; artifacts; amplitude parameters; spacing parameters; hybrid parameters, statistical parameters; scale parameters 1. General remarks The development of soft condensed matter surfaces at the molecular level is nowadays believed to be the building blocks for the creation of the next generation of materials and devices in practically all scientific areas. Particularly the buildup of functional macromolecular heterostructures and mimic of biological structures are in fact an actual trend. The advances in soft condensed analysis matter surfaces are mostly related with the atomic force microscopy (AFM) which was introduced in 1986 [1] and originated with the invention of the scanning tunneling mi