Artifacts Induced by Topography

Some remarks should be made about the appHcation of the topography criterion  

Due to a limited number of data channels, however, in many cases the simultaneous measurement of FMM amplitude and phase, as well as normal and lateral forces, is not possible. Moreover, careful consideration of all these data can turn the data evaluation procedure into a time-consuming task. Hence, application of the topography criterion seems to be a valuable approach, in particular since contact area variations in the direct sense are not reflected by force images. 

The global tilt of the sample surface can easily be higher than the critical slope angle of 3° defined above, thus rendering impossible any stiffness analysis with strict application of the topography criterion. However, parallelization 

Deposit Cu Remove photoresist Apply epoxy system 

The Cu/epoxy sample used for the above analysis was prepared in a novel way, tailored to get particularly flat and easy-to-scan surfaces. In this recent approach, electron beam lithography (EBL) and the lift-off technique were employed in order to produce well-defined Cu structures [29]. The sample preparation procedure is illustrated in Fig. 8.4 a. 

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