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A high-speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM) requires a specialized set of hardware and software and therefore improving video-rate HS-AFMs for general applications is an ongoing process. To improve the imaging rate of an AFM, all components have to be carefully redesigned since the slowest component determines the overall bandwidth of the instrument. In this work, we present a design of a compact HS-AFM scan-head featuring minimal loading on the Z-scanner. Using a custom-programmed controller and a high-speed lateral scanner, we demonstrate its working by obtaining topographic images of Blu-ray disk data tracks in contact- and tapping-modes. Images acquired using a contact-mode cantilever with a natural frequency of 60 kHz in constant deflection mode show good tracking of topography at 400 Hz. In constant height mode, tracking of topography is demonstrated at rates up to 1.9 kHz for the scan size of 1μm×1μm with 100×100 pixels.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is one of the frequently used microscopy techniques to capture high-resolution images in science and engineering. Since the spatial resolution limit of AFM has been mostly reached and no further improvement is likely, much of the recent attention in the development of new AFM has been on improvement of speed. We present a photo-thermal, high-speed atomic force microscope scan head capable of exciting cantilevers photo-thermally and detecting cantilever motions with an optical beam bounce technique. The design features a unique Z-collar that permits direct mounting of a Z-scanner onto a microscope objective lens to achieve a high mechanical bandwidth. We demonstrate the performance of the developed scan head by imaging data tracks of a Blu-ray disk in tapping and contact modes.

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