QCM Operates at MHz Frequencies

Inertia is the QCM experimenter s best friend. In many wa, QCM experiments come down to the measurement of an (oscillatory) force. One may even spell out QCM as quartz crystal micro- (force) balance. In contrast to AFM, force calibration is close to trivial in 

QCM experiments because the forces of inertia are known rather precisely. There is no need to calibrate a cantilever. The QCM experimenter usually balances the force of interest (such as the force transmitted across some kind of contact) against inertia. In this respect, we follow a time-honored recipe first put forward by Sir Isaac Newton in the late seventeenth century. Newton inferred the strength of the gravitational interaction between the sun and the planets from the orbital period. Today we study microparticles rather than planets, and for that reason we have to hurry up. 

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