Thermal measurements using multiple frequency atomic force microscopy

1. An atomic force microscope, comprising:

a cantilever probe providing two separate legs culminating at a tip, and operable for carrying out thermal measurements;

a connection to the probe, which is energized for heating the tip;

a controller that controls heating the tip of the cantilever probe;

a feedback loop, controlling a distance between a base of said cantilever probe and a surface of a sample to maintain the tip of the cantilever probe at a specified location relative to the surface in a Z-axis direction;

a driver, exciting the cantilever probe with at least multiple harmonic frequencies of the cantilever probe; and

a measurement part, measuring amplitude, frequency and/or phase of the cantilever at different excitation frequencies,

wherein said microscope stores a calibration table indicative of calibrating a bending amount of the cantilever probe during heating, by ramping a temperature of the cantilever tip between different temperatures while measuring deflections over a temperature range, and uses the information indicative of calibration deflection to compensate said deflections of the cantilever probe caused by said heating of the tip.

2. The microscope of claim 1 , further comprising a processor using the information by fitting the calibration table to a polynomial, and subtracting the polynomial from the deflections caused by expansion of the tip.

3. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein said feedback loop maintains a constant deflection of the cantilever.

4. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein said feedback loop balances an energy used to excite cantilever motion against energy lost to tip-sample interaction and intrinsic dissipation of the cantilever.

5. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein said driver uses a frequency source to directly drive the cantilever.

6. The microscope of claim 1 , wherein said driver creates a magnetic state adjacent the cantilever.

7. The microscope as in claim 1 , wherein said driver excites at two or more different synthesized frequencies that have been summed together by a circuit element.

8. The microscope as in claim 7 , further comprising lock-in amplifiers, connected to receive each synthesized frequency as a reference signal.

9. The microscope as in claim 1 , wherein said two separated legs of the cantilever probe are electrically connected to separately.

10. The microscope of claim 9 , wherein one of said two separated legs is connected to the applied voltage, and an other leg is connected to ground.

11. The microscope of claim 9 , wherein said legs are connected differentially to at least one differential amplifier.

12. A method of operating an atomic force microscope which includes a cantilever probe, comprising:

exciting the cantilever probe using two or more different synthesized frequencies that have been summed together by a circuit element, where the two synthesized frequencies each comprise harmonics of the cantilever probe;

providing each synthesized frequency as a reference signal to a lock-in amplifier;

heating a tip of the cantilever probe;

and

measuring deflections of the cantilever probe caused by said heating and said exciting, using a feedback loop to maintain the tip at a desired location relative to a surface of a sample, to characterize the surface.

13. The method as in claim 12 , wherein said measuring comprises measuring at least one of amplitude, frequency and/or phase of the cantilever at the different frequencies.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the cantilever probe has two separated legs that meet at the tip, and where the exciting comprises driving a potential across said two separate legs.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein said connecting comprises connecting one of said legs to an applied voltage, and connecting the other leg to ground.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein said connecting comprises connecting to said legs differentially with a separate amplifier connected to each leg.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising first calibrating a bending amount of the cantilever probe during heating, by ramping a temperature of the cantilever tip between different temperatures, while measuring deflections, over a temperature range, to find and store information indicative of calibration deflection and using the information indicative of calibration deflection to compensate said deflections of the cantilever probe caused by said heating and exciting caused by the tip.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein said using the information comprises fitting the calibration deflection to a polynomial, and subtracting the polynomial from the deflections caused by expansion caused by the tip.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein said feedback loop maintains a constant deflection of the cantilever.

20. The method as in claim 12 , wherein the tip is heated until the onset of local melting.

21. The method as in claim 12 , wherein said feedback loop balances an energy used to excite cantilever motion against energy lost to tip-sample interaction and intrinsic dissipation of the cantilever.

22. The method as in claim 12 , wherein said exciting comprises using a frequency source to directly drive the cantilever.

23. The method as in claim 12 , wherein said exciting includes creating a magnetic state adjacent the cantilever.

24. A method, comprising:

operating an atomic force microscope which includes a cantilever probe;

exciting the cantilever probe using at least one harmonic frequency of the probe;

initially calibrating a bending amount of the cantilever probe during heating, by ramping a temperature of the cantilever tip between different temperatures, while measuring deflections, over a temperature range, to find and store information indicative of calibration deflection;

heating the cantilever tip to measure a surface, and measuring deflections of the cantilever probe caused by the tip of the cantilever probe based on said heating, while using a feedback loop to maintain the tip at a desired location relative to the surface to find deflection information, and using the information indicative of calibration deflection to compensate said deflections of the cantilever probe caused by said heating of the tip; and

using the deflection information compensated by said calibration deflection to characterize the surface.

25. The method as in claim 24 , wherein said exciting comprises exciting the cantilever at two or more different synthesized frequencies that have been summed together by a circuit element, where the two synthesized frequencies each comprise harmonic frequencies of the cantilever probe.

26. The method as in claim 25 , further comprising providing each of the two or more different synthesized frequencies as respective reference signals to a lock-in amplifier.

27. The method as in claim 25 , wherein said measuring comprises measuring at least one of amplitude, frequency and/or phase of the cantilever at the different frequencies.

28. The method of claim 24 , wherein the cantilever probe has two separated legs that meet at the tip, and further comprising electrically connecting to each of said two separate legs separately.

29. The method of claim 28 , wherein said connecting comprises connecting one of said legs to an applied voltage, and connecting as the other leg to ground.

30. The method of claim 28 , wherein said connecting comprises connecting to said legs differentially with a separate amplifier connected to each leg.

31. The method of claim 24 , wherein said using the information comprises fitting the calibration deflection to a polynomial, and subtracting the polynomial from the deflections caused by expansion of the tip.

32. The method of claim 24 , wherein said feedback loop maintains a constant deflection of the cantilever.

33. The method as in claim 24 , wherein said feedback loop balances an energy used to excite cantilever motion against energy lost to tip-sample interaction and intrinsic dissipation of the cantilever.

34. The method as in claim 24 , wherein said exciting comprises using a frequency source to directly drive the cantilever.

35. The method as in claim 24 , wherein said exciting includes creating a magnetic state adjacent the cantilever.