Scanning probe microscope trajectory measurement by scanning a single feature

In this paper, a method for estimating scanning probe microscope (SPM) trajectories using only the probe-surface interaction signal is presented. The novelty of this approach is that the trajectory estimate can be made by scanning over one feature. SPMs are perhaps the most important devices for nanotechnology because of their unrivaled ability to measure, manipulate, and modify surfaces at extremely high resolution. Although widely used, SPM operating speed is limited. In order to increase operating speed, SPM trajectory measurement is useful to enable control and modeling, but the sensors required to make those measurements are not always available due to various sensor issues. The probe-surface interaction signal-based probe trajectory estimation technique in this paper overcomes issues associated with conventional sensors by using the existing probe-surface interaction measurement capabilities of SPM systems. The presented method analyzes probe-surface interactions from one feature on the sample's surface to determine a set of probe trajectory zero crossings. This set can be used to estimate the probe trajectory through a nonlinear least squares fit. In order to show the validity of this approach, proof-of-concept simulations are presented.