3D Misorientation of Cantilevers and Its Impact in Friction Force Microscopy

Abstract

The use of AFM in nanotribology is limited by our capacity to fully estimate the cantilever's properties. Especially, cantilever's stiffness plays a major part in the estimation of the contact forces. In this paper, we look at the 3D misorientation of a perfect triangular cantilever in static. The analysis was carried using Finite Element Analysis to estimate the stiffness matrix at the tip end. Results show a small influence of the misorientation in bending. However misorientation along the torsion axis has a notable impact on the estimation of lateral forces and introduce a mechanical cross-talk that can influence machine's measurement.