[11a-N301-1~11] 6.6 Probe Microscopy

[11a-N301-1] Recovery of Tip Apex for Atomic Force Microscopy by Electrochemical Reaction

〇(PC)Jo Onoda¹, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa², Yoshiaki Sugimoto³ (1.Univ. Alberta, 2.Waseda Univ., 3.Univ. Tokyo)

Keywords:atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, mixed ionic and electronic conductor

Sharp tips are required for atomic force microscopy (AFM) since long-range forces act as a background signal on the high-resolution AFM images originating from short-range forces. In this work, we report the recovery of sharp tips for AFM by electrochemical reaction. Ag₂S crystal, a mixed ionic and electronic conductor, is prepared on a conventional Si cantilever. As reported in the previous studies, we can controllably grow and shrink the Ag nano-protrusion by changing the polarity of the bias voltage and current flow between tip and sample. We find it is possible to reduce the contribution of long-range forces by growing an Ag nano-protrusion on the Ag₂S tip and recover atomic-resolution AFM images.