Abstract
Force-based scanning probe microscopies have emerged as a mainstay for probing structural and mechanical properties of materials on the nanometer and molecular scales. Despite tremendous progress achieved to date, the cantilever dynamics in single frequency scanning probe microscopies (SPM) is undefined due to having only two output variables. Here we demonstrate on diamond nanoparticles with different functionalization layers that the use of broad band detection by multiple frequency SPM allows complete information on tip-surface interactions in intermittent contact SPM to be acquired. The obtained data allows sub-3nm resolution even in ambient environment. By tuning the strength of tip-surface interaction, the information on surface state can be obtained.
