On the control of bistability in non-contact mode AFM using modulated time delay

We study the control of bistability in non-contact mode AFM using time delay with modulated feed- back gain. We consider that the tip-sample interaction force is described by Lennard-Jones potential and the equation of motion is modeled by single degree of freedom system. Perturbation analysis is performed to obtain the modulation equations of the slow dynamic. The influence of the modulated time delay on the nonlinear char- acteristic of the frequency response is analyzed and the evolution of the bistability region in the modulated time delay parameter plan is examined. Results show that modulation of the feedback gain can be used to reduce the amplitude of the microcanteliver response and to suppress the bistability regime in large region of the modulated delay parameter space. The analytical predictions are compared to numerical simulations for validation.