2016 Volume 37 Issue 7 Pages 320-325
Recent advances in non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) allow us to visualize structural frameworks of small organic molecules. So far, metallic probes mounted on a stiff piezoelectric sensor in a qPlus configuration and functionalized with a CO molecule have been mostly used to observe relatively flat molecules that are adsorbed parallel to the surface. We have developed a new method that is capable of imaging 3D molecules and surface systems using a so-called multi-pass routine. This imaging method can be used with commercial Si cantilevers to obtain submolecular resolution under less demanding conditions compared to the CO-functionalized probe. In this report, we describe technical points, theoretical interpretation of image contrast, and examples of multi-pass images. A comparison with the previous method is also given to better understand our newly developed technique.
