Abstract: The measurement result of AFM’s contact mode has big measurement error due to the inclination angle of sample surface and friction between the tip and sample surface. In order to eliminate the influence of the friction on the sample topography measured by AFM, and to measure the slope of surface accurately, a novel AFM operation mode that can eliminate the influence of inclination angle and friction (EIIAF), is presented. In this mode, the scan direction is vertical to the long axis of cantilever. By measuring the deflection of cantilever separately in vertical and lateral directions, the forces added to the tip in the two directions can be easily obtained. And then the van der Waals force and the slope of local surface can be obtained by calculating the two forces. By synthesizing the calculated parameters with other parameters, such as the location of tip and scanner the space between the tip and sample surface, the sample’s topography can be finally obtained. In the above operation mode, the friction force between tip and sample surface can be controlled, thus the damage to tip and sample can be avoided. And the feasibility of this method is verified by the simulation results.

Key words: Atomic force microscopes, Eliminating influence of inclination angle and friction mode, Friction, Slope of sample surface