COMPACT SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE HEAD BASED ON INERTIAL THRUSTERS USING PIEZOPACKETS

The instrumental principles of constructing a compact measuring head of a scanning probe microscope are discussed. To minimize the overall dimensions, a piezo package is used, which makes it possible to implement in one unit both the functions of the actuating element of the SPM tracking system and the functions of the module for approaching the probe to the sample. A control scheme for a piezo-inertial linear step mover is presented, and histograms of the step size distribution are measured. Diagrams of compact SPM heads operating in tunneling and semi-contact power modes using self-sensing probe sensors are presented. To increase the size of the survey SPM images, scanning over several overlapping areas was implemented with further stitching of the SPM images in a single frame. The algorithm for stitching SPM images is discussed. The deviations in the directions of the stage and probe movements, arising during the new scanning frame selection, are being corrected within the framework of the SPM image stitching algorithm. The results of capturing SPM images using a compact SPM head and stitching SPM images by means of elaborated algorithms are presented.