Enhanced compositional sensitivity in atomic force microscopy by the excitation of the first two flexural modes

The authors demonstrate that the compositional sensitivity of an atomic force microscope is enhanced by the simultaneous excitation of its first two flexural eigenmodes. The coupling of those modes by the nonlinear probe-surface interactions enables to map compositional changes in several conjugated molecular materials with a phase shift sensitivity that is about one order of magnitude higher than the one achieved in amplitude modulation atomic force microscopy.The authors thank Fabio Biscarini, Neil Oxtoby, and Concepció Rovira for providing the conjugated molecules. This work was financially supported by the European Commission (FORCETOOL, NMP4-CT-2004-013684).Peer reviewe