Abstract
Self-excitation thechnique is known as an effective excitation method for a cantilever probe of the atomic force microscope to measure the surface of a biological sample in a liquid environment. In this research, we deal with a van der Pol type cantilever probe, which is previously proposed to realize the non-contact mode, and experimentally examine the relationships between the response frequency and amplitude and the gap of the cantilever probe and the surface. From the result, the performance of the self-excited cantilever probe from viewpoint of the contact between the cantilever and the surface.
