Bruker 004-130-000 User manual

Document Revision History: SPM Training Notebook
Revision Date Section(s) Affected Reference Approval
Rev. F 01/28/2011 Re-branded R.Wishengrad
Rev. E 10/27/2003 Content and Format Update N/A C. Kowalski
Rev. D 08/05/2003 Overall Content and Format Update N/A L. Burrows
Rev. C 07/30/2003 Content Update N/A L. Burrows
Rev. B 08/01/1998 Format Update N/A C. Fitzgerald
Rev. A 05/09/1997 Initial Release N/A J. Thornton
Copyright © 2003, 2011 Bruker Corporation
All rights reserved.
SPM Training Notebook
004-130-000 (standard)
004-130-100 (cleanroom)

Notices: The information in this document is subject to change without notice. NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND IS MADE WITH REGARD TO
THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. No liability is assumed for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the
furnishing, performance, or use of this material. This document contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright. No part of this
document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated into another language without prior written consent.
Copyright: Copyright © 2003, 2011 Bruker Corporation. All rights reserved.
Trademark Acknowledgments: The following are registered trademarks of Bruker Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
Product Names:
NanoScope®
MultiMode™
Dimension™
BioScope™
Atomic Force Profiler™ (AFP™)
Dektak®
Software Modes:
TappingMode™
Tapping™
TappingMode+™
LiftMode™
AutoTune™
TurboScan™
Fast HSG™
PhaseImaging™
DekMap 2™
HyperScan™
StepFinder™
SoftScan™
Hardware Designs:
TrakScan™
StiffStage™
Hardware Options:
TipX®
Signal Access Module™ and SAM™
Extender™
TipView™
Interleave™
LookAhead™
Quadrex™
Software Options:
NanoScript™
Navigator™
FeatureFind™
Miscellaneous:
NanoProbe®

Rev. F SPM Training Notebook 1
Table of Contents
1.0 History and Definitions in SPMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Other forms of SPM: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.0 Scanning Tunneling Microscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.0 Contact Mode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.0 TappingMode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.0 Non-contact Mode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.0 Advantages and Disadvantages of Contact Mode AFM, TappingMode AFM,
and Non-contact Mode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.1 Contact Mode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.2 TappingMode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.3 Non-contact Mode AFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
7.0 Piezoelectric Scanners: How They Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
8.0 Piezoelectric Scanners: Hysteresis and Aging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8.1 Hysteresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8.2 Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9.0 Piezoelectric Scanners: Creep and Bow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
9.1 Creep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
9.2 Bow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
10.0 Probes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
10.1 Silicon Nitride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
10.2 Silicon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
11.0 Types of SPM Probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
11.1 Contact Mode Probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
11.2 TappingMode Probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
11.3 Probes for Other SPM Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
12.0 Atomic Force Microscopy- “Beam Deflection” Detection . . . . . . . . . . 25

2 SPM Training Notebook Rev. F
13.0 SPM Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
14.0 Abbreviated Instructions for Dimension Series AFMs. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
14.1 Mode of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
14.2 Align the Laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
14.3 Adjust the Photodetector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
14.4 Locate Tip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
14.5 Focus Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
14.6 Cantilever Tune (TappingMode Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
14.7 Set Initial Scan Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
14.8 Engage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
14.9 Adjust Scan Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
14.10 Set Desired Scan Size, Scan Angle, and Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
15.0 Abbreviated Instructions for the MultiMode AFM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15.1 Mode of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15.2 Mount Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15.3 Select Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15.4 Mount Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15.5 Place Optical Head on Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
15.6 Align Laser and Tip-Sample Approach (2 Methods) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
15.7 Adjust Photodiode Signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
15.8 Cantilever Tune (TappingMode Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
15.9 Set Initial Scan Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
15.10 Engage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
15.11 Adjust Scan Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
15.12 Set Desired Scan Size, Scan Angle, and Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
16.0 Realtime Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
16.1 Setpoint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
16.2 Integral Gain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
16.3 Scan Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
16.4 Other Important Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
17.0 Force Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
18.0 Offline Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
18.1 File Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
18.2 Image Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
18.3 Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
19.0 Tip Shape Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
19.1 Resolution Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
20.0 Typical Image Artifacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
21.0 Calibration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Rev. F Scanning Probe Microscope Training Notebook 1
SPM Training Notebook
This Notebook is intended to be used as an introduction by the first-time user of Bruker NanoScope
Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM). For further information, please consult the Command
Reference Manual and/or the appropriate NanoScope manual.
Specifically, this manual covers the following:
•History and Definitions in SPMs: Page 3
•Scanning Tunneling Microscope: Page 5
•Contact Mode AFM: Page 8
•TappingMode AFM: Page 10
•Non-contact Mode AFM: Page 11
•Advantages and Disadvantages of Contact Mode AFM, TappingMode AFM, and
Non-contact Mode AFM: Page 12
•Piezoelectric Scanners: How They Work: Page 14
•Piezoelectric Scanners: Hysteresis and Aging: Page 16
•Piezoelectric Scanners: Creep and Bow: Page 19
•Probes: Page 21
•Types of SPM Probes: Page 23
•Atomic Force Microscopy- “Beam Deflection” Detection: Page 25
•SPM Configurations: Page 26
•Abbreviated Instructions for Dimension Series AFMs: Page 29
•Abbreviated Instructions for the MultiMode AFM: Page 32
•Realtime Operation: Page 36
•Force Curves: Page 42

2 Scanning Probe Microscope Training Notebook Rev. F
•Offline Operation: Page 44
•Tip Shape Issues: Page 53
•Typical Image Artifacts: Page 58
•Calibration: Page 62

History and Definitions in SPMs
Rev. F Scanning Probe Microscope Training Notebook 3
1.0 History and Definitions in SPMs
1.1 History
Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM)
• Developed in 1982 by Binning, Rohrer, Gerber, and Weibel at IBM in Zurich, Switzerland.
• Binning and Rohrer won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this invention in 1986.
Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)
• Developed in 1986 by Binning, Quate, and Gerber as a collaboration between IBM and Stanford
University.
1.2 Definitions
Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM): Consists of a family of microscopy forms where a sharp probe is
scanned across a surface and probe/sample interaction is monitored.
The two primary forms of SPM:
1. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)
2. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) (also called Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM)
• There are 3 primary modes of AFM:
• Contact Mode AFM
• Non-contact Mode AFM
• TappingMode AFM

History and Definitions in SPMs
4 Scanning Probe Microscope Training Notebook Rev. F
1.3 Other forms of SPM:
Lateral Force Microscopy (LFM)
Force Modulation Microscopy
Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM)
Electric Force Microscopy (EFM)
Surface Potential Microscopy
Phase Imaging
Force Volume
Electrochemical STM & AFM (ECM)
Scanning Capacitance Microscopy (SCM)
Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM)
Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM or SNOM)
Scanning Spreading Resistance (SSRM)
Tunneling AFM (TUNA)
Conductive AFM (CAFM)
NanoIndentation
Torsional Resonance Mode (TR Mode)
NanoLithography / NanoManipulation
SECPM

Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Rev. F Scanning Probe Microscope Training Notebook 5
2.0 Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Basic SPM Components

Scanning Tunneling Microscope
6 Scanning Probe Microscope Training Notebook Rev. F
Figure 2.0a Feedback Loop Maintains Constant Tunneling Current
STM is based on the fact that the tunneling current between a conductive tip and sample is
exponentially dependent on their separation.
This can be represented by the equation: I ~ Ve -cd
• I = Tunneling current
• V = Bias voltage between tip and sample
•c=constant
• d = tip-sample separation distance
As the tip scans the sample surface, it encounters sample features of different heights, resulting in
an exponential change in the tunneling current.
A feedback loop is used to maintain a constant tunneling current during scanning by vertically
moving the scanner at each (x,y) data point until a “setpoint” current is reached.
The vertical position of the scanner at each (x,y) data point is stored by the computer to form the
topographic image of the sample surface.
This technique is typically limited to conductive and semiconducting surfaces