Tuning-fork-based fast highly sensitive surface-contact sensor for atomic force microscopy/near-field scanning optical microscopy

We have developed a surface-contact sensor on the basis of a tuning fork which differs from the previously described ones in that it has a high operating speed (up to 100 times as fast as the so-called Q limit), requires no external piezoelectric drive, has a sufficiently high sensitivity, and features a “soft” probe attachment which makes the lifetime of the probe equal to that of the standard atomic force microscopy. When using a “soft” probe with a rigidity of 0.5 N/m, one can reliably detect probe tip-to-sample distance variations as small as 0.1 nm. The resonance frequency resolution attained amounted to 2×10^-3 Hz. The rate of transient rise is τ=1.5 ms (this refers to the response time of the sensor proper with the Z-coordinate feedback loop open and not to the response time of the microscope as a whole). We have theoretically substantiated the fact that the Q limit, where Q∼10 000 is the Q factor of the tuning fork proper, is not a fundamental restriction on the operating speed of the sensor. This sensor characteristic is governed by another independent quantity, namely, Q₁∼100: the quality factor of the tuning fork preamplifier system that can be varied to suit the experimenter. In that case, the fundamental force limitation on the sensitivity of the sensor, associated with its operating speed and the Q factor of the tuning fork, is F_noise≈10.4 nN/(√Q√Q₁). © 2002 American Institute of Physics.