Calibrate the non-orthogonal error of AFM with two-dimensional self-traceable grating
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 2, 2025
Covalent Immobilization of Proteins for the Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy
Published on: August 20, 2018
Wen Tan1, Zhaohui Tang1, Guangxu Xiao1
1Institute of Precision Optical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; MOE Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-Structured Materials, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Digital Optics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Shanghai Professional Technical Service Platform for Full-Spectrum and High-Performance Optical Thin Film Devices and Applications, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Abstract:
The calibration of the non-orthogonal error in nanoscale measurements is of paramount importance for analytical measuring instruments. Particularly, the calibration of non-orthogonal errors in atomic force microscopy (AFM) is essential for the traceable measurements of novel materials and two-dimensional (2D) crystals. The 2D self-traceable grating with a theoretical non-orthogonal angle of less than 0.0027° and an expanded uncertainty of 0.003° (k = 2) are measured by the Metrological Large Range Scanning Probe Microscope (Met. LR-SPM). In this study, we characterized the local and overall non-orthogonal error in AFM scans and proposed a protocol to tune the optimal scanning parameters of AFM minimizing the non-orthogonal error. We presented the method for accurately calibrating a commercial AFM system for non-orthogonal by establishing a detailed uncertainty budget and errors analysis. Our results verified the important advantages of the 2D self-traceable grating in calibrating precision instruments.
