Quantification of nanomechanical properties of surfaces by higher harmonic monitoring in amplitude modulated AFM imaging
Gramazio, Federico (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Lorenzoni, Matteo (Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona)
Pérez Murano, Francesc (Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona)
Evangelio Araujo, Laura (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Fraxedas, Jordi (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)

Date:	2018
Abstract:	The determination of nanomechanical properties is an intensive topic of study in several fields of nanophysics, from surface and materials science to biology. At the same time, amplitude modulation force microscopy is one of the most established techniques for nanoscale characterization. In this work, we combine these two topics and propose a method able to extract quantitative nanomechanical information from higher harmonic amplitude imaging in atomic force microscopy. With this method it is possible to discriminate between different materials in the stiffness range of 1-3 GPa, in our case thin films of PS-PMMA based block copolymers. We were able to obtain a critical lateral resolution of less than 20 nm and discriminate between materials with less than a 1 GPa difference in modulus. We show that within this stiffness range, reliable values of the Young's moduli can be obtained under usual imaging conditions and with standard dynamic AFM probes.
Grants:	European Commission 309558 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SEV-2013-0295 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2015-69864-R Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte FPU13/03746
Note:	Altres ajuts: the ICN2 is funded by the CERCA programme/Generalitat de Catalunya.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Atomic force microscopy ; Higher harmonics ; Nanomechanics ; Block copolymers
Published in:	Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 187 (April 2018) , p. 20-25, ISSN 1879-2723

DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2018.01.013

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles