Fundamentals of an Atomic Force Microscope Based on a Digital Versatile Disk Optical Pick-up Unit

Download or read book Fundamentals of an Atomic Force Microscope Based on a Digital Versatile Disk Optical Pick-up Unit written by En-Te Hwu and published by Edwin Hwu. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel non-contact multiaxial astigmatic detection system (ADS) is designed and developed using the astigmatism as the measuring principle for the translational displacement, the angle, and their variations of a measured surface simultaneously. An optical pickup unit (OPU) of a commercial digital versatile disk (DVD) read only memory (ROM) drive can be used directly as an optical path mechanism in the above mentioned ADS, which can measure the translational and angular displacements accurately and simultaneously. The total linear detection range and the maximum measurement bandwidth of the ADS are 6 mm and 80MHz, respectively. The resolution of the translational displacement measurement is in sub-angstrom scale. For an operating frequency of 700 kHz, the noise floors of the translational and angular signals are below 0.8 pm/Hz1/2 and 0.4 mrad/ Hz1/2, respectively. The ADS can monitor the translational and two orthogonal angular displacements of a micro fabricated cantilever in atomic force microscopy (AFM). All the three, contact non-contact and tapping, modes can resolve the single atomic steps of the graphite surface, which indicates that atomic resolution is achievable with the ADS. The thermal noise spectra of the AFM probe can be clearly measured as well. Furthermore, the accuracy of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) depends not only on the measurement system itself, but also by the accuracy of the signal processing, which further depends on the physical and geometrical characteristics of the probe. The structure of the ADS is compact and stable. Besides the measurements through AFM probes, the ADS can be operated in profilometer mode. The CD surface and the CCD microlens are measured by this mode. The maximum scanning speed can reach up to 3.84×106 mm/s theoretically, almost one million times faster than that of a commercial SPM system. The ADS has a great potential for future development, the expansibility and the accuracy can evolve with the performance of future OPU. From the DVD OPU to higher resolution one, such as the OPU of the Blu-ray drive or high- definition (HD-DVD), can be integrated into the ADS as well. KEYWORDS: Astigmatism, ADS, Translational displacement, Angular displacement, SPM, AFM, Cantilever, Optical profilometer