Nanoscale measurements of Poisson's ratio with contact-resonance atomic force microscopy

Published

August 9, 2007

Author(s)

Donna C. Hurley, J Turner

Abstract

We describe contact-resonance atomic force microscopy (AFM) methods to quantitatively measure Poisson's ratio v or shear modulus G at the same time as Young's modulus E. In contact-resonance AFM, the frequencies of the cantilever's resonant vibrations are measured while the tip is in contact with the sample. Simultaneous measurement of flexural and torsional vibrational modes enables E and v to be determined separately. Analysis methods are presented to relate the contact-resonance frequencies to the tip-sample contact stiffness, which in turn determines sample's nanoscale elastic properties. Experimental results are presented for a glass specimen using fused silica as a reference material. The agreement between our contact-resonance AFM measurements and values obtained from other means demonstrates the validity of the basic method.

Citation

Journal of Applied Physics

Volume

102

Issue

3

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

atomic force microscopy, contact-resonance spectroscopy, elastic properties, Poisson ratio

Citation

Hurley, D. and Turner, J. (2007), Nanoscale measurements of Poisson's ratio with contact-resonance atomic force microscopy, Journal of Applied Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50507 (Accessed October 14, 2025)