Abstract
This paper describes a new scanning probe microscope which is able to measure the shearing stress generated by the interaction between the STM tip and the sample surface under STM controlled. The method of measurement is utilized the quartz crystal microbalance technique. The sample is deposited on the AT-cut quartz crystal resonator surface, and the shearing stress which is generated in the sample causes the resonance frequency shift of the quartz crystal resonator. By detecting this signal, we can obtain the shearing stress distribution. The gold thin films have been observed for the STM surface topography and the distribution of subsurface shearing stress simultaneously. In the experiment, the sensitivity of the shearing stress is as high as 0.12 N/m for a 0.05 Hz frequency shift of the quartz crystal resonance frequency.
