Thermal K
5
Keysight 5500 SPM User’s Guide
5-4
the address in the Acquisition Card Address field and select the
Acquisition Card (Thermal K) check box to activate the card.
Before the spring constant can be computed, the
Deflection Sensitivity
has to be known. This number can be entered directly in the
Spectroscopy Advanced tab, or it can be computed as described in the
A rigid sample like mica will also be needed to obtain a good force
curve.
Spring Constant Calibration
In the PicoView software main window:
1
Choose
Mode >Contact
.
2
Choose
Controls >Spectroscopy
to open the Spectroscopy window.
3
In the Spectroscopy window, confirm
Force vs Distance
for the plot
4
In the Spectroscopy Basic tab, click on the
1
button
to do a
single sweep.
Figure 14-2
Spectroscopy window showing Force vs Distance selected
NOTE
In order to obtain accurate spring constant values with Thermal K, the Z
closed loop scanner is recommended. Also, in order to maintain the
integrity of the tip of the AFM probe, it is often preferable to perform
the calibration after all Force vs Distance sweeps have been performed.
PicoIMage is required for post-processing. The
Cantilever Settings
button in PicoImage allows the user to set (or calculate) the Sensitivity,
enter a spring constant after the fact, and then display the plot with V,
nm or nN vertical scale units.
