Effects of system parameters on tip-wear in tapping mode atomic force microscopy

The effects of system parameters on tip-wear in tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) were experimentally studied. The system parameters studied are tip type, free amplitude, amplitude set-point and scan rate. In addition to the estimated tip diameter (ETD), the surface roughness (Ra) is adopted as a tip-wear index in this study. Experimental results show that the Ra measure smoothly varied as the process progressed while the ETD varied less smoothly. In order to reduce the effects of the initial condition of tip-wear, a normalized tip-wear index is also introduced in this study. It is found that free amplitude has significant effects on all tip-wear measurements and tip types have a significant influence on all roughness-related measures, while the amplitude set-point has a significant effect only on one diameter-related parameter in the range studied. In conclusion, the diamond-coated tip with a relatively higher set-point and small free amplitude can reduce the tip-wear rate.