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Chapter 3
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-7248-2.ch003
ABSTRACT
Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs) are used in many nanopositioning applications in order to measure
the topography of various specimens at an atomic level through surface imaging. The imaging of the
samples in AFMs is carried out by using a three degree-of-freedom positioning unit called Piezoelectric
Tube Scanner (PTS). The performance of the AFM mostly depends on the performance of the PTS.
However, the PTS of the AFM sufers from the problem of vibration. This chapter presents a design
of a damping controller to compensate the induced vibration of the scanner. Experimental results are
presented to show the efectiveness of the proposed controller. The experimental results show that the
proposed controller is able to compensate 90% of the vibration of the PTS.
1. INTRODUCTION
Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) (Binning et al., 1986; Meyer et al., 2004) refers to a group of imaging
techniques that collect images of sample surfaces through scanning. Many types of SPM systems such as
scanning tunneling microscope (STM) (Binning et al., 1987), atomic force microscope (AFM) (Bhikkaji
et al., 2008; Das et al., 2012; Ratnam et al., 2005), and magnetic force microscope (MFM) (Rugar et al.,
1990) are used now a day to view sample surfaces. The SPM was first found in the form of STM. The
STM uses only conducting samples to scan which limits the use of STM for non-conducting samples.
This leads to the invention of the AFM. The AFM is a type of SPM system which is used to measure the
Advanced Vibration
Control of Atomic Force
Microscope Scanner
Sajal K. Das
University of New South Wales, Australia
Hemanshu R. Pota
University of New South Wales, Australia
Ian R. Petersen
University of New South Wales, Australia