New Calibration Methods for improving the Accuracy of AFM

원자간력 현미경의 자율교정법

In this paper presents an accurate AFM used that is free from the Z-directional distortion of a servo actuator is described. Two mathematical correction methods by the in-situ self-calibrationare employed in this AFM. One is the method by the integration, and the other is the method by inverse function of the calibration curve. The in situ self-calibration method by the integration, the derivative of the calibration curve function of the PZT actuator is calculated from the profile measurement data sets which are obtained by repeating measurements after a small Z-directional shift. Input displacement at each sampling point is approximately estimated first by using a straight calibration line. The derivative is integrated with reference to the approximate input to obtain the approximate calibration curve. Then the approximation of the input value of each sampling point is improved using the obtained calibration curve. Next the integral of the derivative is improved using the newly estimated input values. As a result of repeating these improving process, the calibration curve converges to the correct one, and the distortion of the AFM image can be corrected. In the in situ self-calibration through evaluating the inverse function of the calibration curve, the profile measurement data sets were used during the data processing technique. Principles and experimental results of the two methods are presented.