Nanosurf easyScan 2 AFM, Operating Instructions Manual

Page: 61 / 164

J
UDGING MEASUREMENT QUALITY
61
Electrical interference
Electrical interference may be caused by interference in the electronics, or
by electrostatic forces acting between the tip and the sample. Try the fol-
lowing in order to reduce the influence of electrical interference:
- Connect the instrument to the mains power supply using sockets with
line filters and surge protection.
- Connect the sample, or when it is not conducting, the sample support to
the sample holder to the ground connector on the scan head using the
ground cable (figure
Contents of the AFM Tool set (p.17), 1).
- Remove interfering electromagnetic field sources, such cathode ray tube
displays, loudspeakers, …
Infrared light sources
Infrared light sources can influence the deflection detection system. This
problem is especially severe when measuring in the Static Force mode. Try
the following in order to reduce the influence of infrared light sources:
- Turn off the light.
- Shield the instrument from external light sources.
- When using the instrument with an inverted microscope, use filters that
filter out infrared light.
Judging measurement quality
When all other improvements have been made, the measurement quality
depends mainly on the quality of the tip. A good tip quality is necessary for
high quality images of high resolution.
• When the image quality deteriorates dramatically during a previously
good measurement, the tip has most probably picked up some particles
(section
Image quality suddenly deteriorates (p.81)).
In the following cases the cantilever has to be replaced in order to re-estab-
lish high image quality: