Sharif Digital Repository

The spatial scaling law and intermittency of the V2O5 surface roughness has been investigated by atomic force microscopy. The intermittency of the height fluctuations has been checked by two different methods, first, by measuring the scaling exponent of the qth moment of height-difference fluctuations i.e. Cq = <|h(x1) - h(x2)|q>, and second, by defining the generating function Z(q, N) and generalized multi-fractal dimension Dq. These methods predict that there is no intermittency in the height fluctuations. The observed roughness and dynamical exponents can be explained by numerical simulation on the basis of the forced Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation  

In this paper, the resonant frequency and sensitivity of atomic force microscope (AFM) microcantilevers are studied using the modified couple stress theory. The classical continuum mechanics is incapable of interpreting micro-structure-dependent size effects when the size of structures is in micron- and sub-micron scales. However, this dependency can be well treated by using non-classical continuum theories. The modified couple stress theory is a non-classic continuum theory which employs additional material parameters besides those appearing in classical continuum theory to treat the size-dependent behavior. In this work, writing differential equations of motion of AFM cantilevers together... 

As membrane distillation (MD) is an under-developed separation process, specific membranes for MD applications are not yet commercially available. Therefore, microporous polymeric membranes made of hydrophobic materials fabricated for microfiltration purposes are usually used for MD applications. Characterization of such kind of membranes is important in order to achieve a better in-depth understanding of their performance and to fabricate specific membranes for MD process. One of the emerging characterization methods is atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. AFM is a newly developed high-resolution method that is useful for studying the surface topography of various types of membranes, and... 

An Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a capable tool to manipulate nanoparticles by exerting pushing force on the nanoparticles located on the substrate. In reality, the substrate cannot be considered as a smooth surface particularly at the nanoscale. Hence, the particle may encounter a step on the substrate during a manipulation. In this study, dynamics of the nanoparticle on a stepped substrate and critical pushing force in the manipulation are investigated. There are two possible dynamic modes that may happen in the manipulation on the stepped substrate. In one mode, the nanoparticle may slide on the step edge and then climb up to the step which is a desired mode. Another possible mode is... 

In this paper, we have successfully deposited Ag-Cu thin films. Nanoscale morphology and nanotexture were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) through fractal and stereometric parameters. Additional algorithms have been developed to study new fractal parameters such as surface entropy, fractal succolarity, and fractal lacunarity. The results revealed that as the deposition time increased, films exposed isotropies between ~65 and 82%, which were correlated to the fractal patterns, where from #3 to #5 there were greater spatial complexities. Moreover, surface roughness increased from #1 to #3, which was observed for both Sq and Sa. Similar behavior was exhibited by the other height... 

To investigate the Ta/Co/Cu/Co/NiO/Si(100) spin valve structure, fabrication and characterization of the Cu/Co/NiO/Si(100) system was studied for further understanding the structure. The system was grown by employing combinative DC sputtering-evaporation technique. Nickel oxide with a thickness of about 30 nm was deposited on Si(100) substrate using thermal evaporation technique.The cobalt film, then, with a thickness of about 3 nm was grown by DC sputtering under various applied negative bias voltages ranging from 0 to - 80 V. The optimum bias voltage (Vb = -60 V) for the growth of Co layer was determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM), four-point probe sheet measurement (Rs) and scanning... 

We investigate the Markov property of rough surfaces. Using stochastic analysis, we characterize the complexity of the surface roughness by means of a Fokker-Planck or Langevin equation. The obtained Langevin equation enables us to regenerate surfaces with similar statistical properties compared with the observed morphology by atomic force microscopy. © 2003 The American Physical Society  

Since amyloid beta fibrillation (AβF) plays an important role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, we investigated the effect of graphene oxide (GO) and their protein-coated surfaces on the kinetics of Aβ fibrillation in the aqueous solution. We showed that GO and their protein-covered surfaces delay the AβF process via adsorption of amyloid monomers. Also, the large available surface of GO sheets can delay the AβF process by adsorption of amyloid monomers. The inhibitory effect of the GO sheet was increased when we increase the concentration from 10% (in vitro; stimulated media) to 100% (in vivo; stimulated media). Conclusion: our results revealed that GO and their surface... 

In this paper, the atomic-scale interactions between metallic tips and samples in noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) are studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The effects of the tip and sample materials, the surface plane direction and the lateral position of the tip with respect to the sample, on the interaction force and the dissipated energy, are investigated. The simulations conducted demonstrate that, generally, we can classify the possible outcomes for the dynamics due to the tip-surface interactions into four major categories. The first category includes all cases in which there are no considerable instabilities in tip-surface interactions, leading to negligible... 

The resonant frequencies and torsional sensitivities of an atomic force microscope (AFM) assembled cantilever probe which comprises a horizontal cantilever, two vertical extensions and two tips located at their free ends are studied. This probe makes the AFM capable of measuring, for instance, the outer/inner diameter, roundness and roughness of microstructures like micro-holes and micro nozzles which leads to a time-saving swift scanning process. In this work, the effects of the sample surface contact stiffness and the geometrical parameters such as the ratio of the vertical extension length to the horizontal cantilever length and the distance of the first vertical extension from the... 

The resonant frequencies and torsional sensitivities of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with assembled cantilever probe (ACP) are studied. This ACP comprises a horizontal cantilever, a vertical extension and two tips located at the free ends of the cantilever and the extension which makes the AFM capable of simultaneous topography at top-surface and sidewalls of microstructures especially microgears which consequently leads to a time-saving swift scanning process. In this work, the effects of the sample surface contact stiffness and the geometrical parameters such as the ratio of the vertical extension length to the horizontal cantilever length and the distance of the vertical extension... 

The resonant frequencies and flexural sensitivities of an atomic force microscope (AFM) assembled cantilever probe which comprises a horizontal cantilever, a vertical extension and two tips located at the free ends of the cantilever and the extension are studied. This probe makes the AFM capable of simultaneous topography at top-surface and sidewalls of microstructures especially microgears which leads to a time-saving swift scanning process. In this work, the effects of the sample surface contact stiffness and the geometrical parameters such as the ratio of the vertical extension length to the horizontal cantilever length and the distance of the vertical extension from clamped end of the... 

Purpose: The morphological stability of silicon single crystal wafers was investigated, after performing cleaning surface treatments based on moderate temperature annealing and plasma sputtering. Methods: The wafer surfaces were measured by Tapping mode atomic force microscopy in air, before and after the different treatments. The 3D images were segmented by watershed algorithm identifying the local peaks, and the stereometric parameters were extracted thereof. The analysis of variance allowed to better assess the statistically significant differences. Results: All the resulting quantities were critically discussed. It appeared that the different cleaning treatments affected differently the... 

Atomic force microscopy (AFM), as an indispensable tool for nanoscale characterization, presents major drawbacks for operation in a liquid environment arising from the large hydrodynamic drag on the vibrating cantilever. The newly introduced 'Trolling mode' (TR-mode) AFM resolves this complication by using a specialized nanoneedle cantilever that keeps the cantilever outside of the liquid. Herein, a mechanical model with a lumped mass was developed to capture the dynamics of such a cantilever with a nanoneedle tip. This new developed model was applied to investigate the effects of the needle-liquid interface on the performance of the AFM, including the imaging capability in liquid  

The resonant frequency of flexural vibration for a dagger shaped atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever has been investigated using the Timoshenko beam theory. Generally, three distinct regions are considered for dagger shaped cantilevers, one region with constant cross section and height and two double tapered regions. In this paper, the effects of the contact position, contact stiffness, the height of the tip, thickness of the beam, the height and breadth taper ratios of cantilever and the angle between the cantilever and the sample surface based on Timoshenko beam theory on the non-dimensional frequency and sensitivity to the contact stiffness have been studied. The differential... 

The taping mode Atomic Force Microscopic (T-AFM) can be assumed as a cantilever beam which its base is excited by a sinusoidal force and nonlinear potential interaction with sample. Thus the cantilever may cause chaotic behavior which decreases the performance of the sample topography. In order to modeling, using the galerkin method, the PDE equation is reduced to a single ODE equation which properly describing the continuous beam. In this paper a nonlinear delayed feedback control is proposed to control chaos in T-AFM system. Assuming model parameters uncertainties, the first order Unstable Periodic Orbits (UPOs) of the system is stabilized using the sliding nonlinear delayed feedback...