Rotational positioning system adapted to atomic force microscope for measuring anisotropic surface properties

The diverse atomic configurations induce the anisotropic surface properties. For investigating anisotropic phenomena, we developed a rotational positioning system adapted to atomic force microscope (AFM). This rotational positioning system is applied to revolve the measured sample to defined angular direction, and it composed of an inertial rotational stepper and a visual angular measurement. The inertial rotational stepper with diameter 30 mm and height 7.6 mm can be easily attached to the AFM-system built in any general optical microscope. Based on a clearance less bearing and the inertial driving method, its bidirectional angular resolution reaches 0.005 deg. per step. For realizing a close-loop controlled angular positioning function, the visual measurement method is utilized. Through the feedback control, the angular positioning error is less than 0.01 deg. For verifying the system performance, we used it to investigate the anisotropic surface properties of graphite. Through a modified cantilever tip, the atomic-scale stick-slip, and the anisotropic friction phenomena can be distinctly detected.