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Summary: Determination of the Separation in Colloid
Probe Atomic Force Microscopy of Deformable
Bodies
Graeme Gillies, Clive A. Prestidge, and Phil Attard*
Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia,
Mawson Lakes, South Australia 5095, Australia
Received July 20, 2001. In Final Form: September 7, 2001
The main difficulty with atomic force microscopy (AFM)
measurements on deformable systems is that there is no
sharp transition between contact and noncontact because
deformation occurs prior to contact due to the extended
range of surface forces. This means that the zero of
separation cannot be determined in the same way as for
rigid bodies. In this paper, we report a rigorous method
for determining the separation.
In the literature, one can identify six methods that have
been used in an attempt to resolve the problem. First, the
piezo drive distance is used as an abscissa and all
separations are reported as relative to an arbitrary zero.1,2
This approach simply ignores the problem. Second, the
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