Scanned-cantilever atomic force microscope with large scanning range

A scanned-cantilever atomic force microscope (AFM) with large scanning range is proposed, which adopts a new design named laser spot tracking. The scanned-cantilever AFM uses the separate flexure x-y scanner and z scanner instead of the conventional piezoelectric tube scanner. The closed-loop control and integrated capacitive sensors of these scanners can insure that the images of samples have excellent linearity and stability. According to the experimental results, the scanned-cantilever AFM can realize maximal 100×100 (μm) scanning range, and 1-nm resolution in z direction, which can meet the requirements of large scale sample testing.