Vertical stacking of monolayers via van der Waals (vdW) assembly is an emerging field that opens promising routes toward engineering physical properties of two-dimensional materials. Industrial exploitation of these engineering heterostructures as robust functional materials still requires bounding their measured properties so as to enhance theoretical tractability and assist in experimental designs. ...

Here we demonstrate how to get adhesion force maps with an amplitude-modulation AFM in tapping mode. Our method is tapping mode but it is carried out at ultra-small amplitudes in the presence of surface water layers. The tip is made to vibrated under the water layer in what we call Small Amplitude Small Set-point AM AFM. We show how this is done with an example based on the Cypher scanning probe ...

Here, we discuss the effects that the dynamics of the hydration layer and other variables, such as the tip radius, have on the availability of imaging regimes in dynamic AFM—including multifrequency AFM. Since small amplitudes are required for high-resolution imaging, we focus on these cases. It is possible to fully immerse a sharp tip under the hydration layer and image with amplitudes similar to ...

When we speak of nanometric water films on surfaces we are speaking about a truly ubiquitous phenomenon in nature. All surfaces exposed to ambient conditions are covered by a thin film of water that affects or mediates surface chemistry, general physical-chemical processes on surfaces, and even solid–solid interactions. We have investigated this phenomenon for over a decade by exploiting dynamic ...

Quantification of conservative forces in multifrequency atomic force microscopy requires solving the general equations of the theory expressed in terms of the virials of interaction. Power law expressions are commonly utilized when dealing with electrostatic, ferroelectric, magnetic, or long range (van der Waals) forces. Here, we discuss long range forces modeled in terms of power laws (n), where ...

Here we demonstrate how to reconstruct force profiles with an amplitude-modulation AFM operated in in standard tapping mode. Our example is based on the Cypher scanning probe microscope from Asylum Research. The method is based on Sader and Katan’s algorithm, but we have implemented an experimental set-up that allows for robust reconstruction. We discuss the details here.