Stylus

The stylus of the planimeter is guided around the depth to be measured and the respective area contained within this contour can then be read off. The area is now plotted for each depth as shown in Figure 6.2 and entered onto the area - depth graph. Since the structure is basically cut into slices of increasing depth the area measured for each depth will also increase. 

Tlrese metlrods may be applied to on line wire surface testing where conventional procedures are inadequate, such as tire stylus metlrod, due to the specimen diameter or microscopic examination. 

Teague E C, Scire F E, Backer S M and Jensen S W 1982 Three-dimensional stylus profilometry Wear 82 1... 

The ultimate covalent ceramic is diamond, widely used where wear resistance or very great strength are needed the diamond stylus of a pick-up, or the diamond anvils of an ultra-high pressure press. Its structure, shown in Fig. 16.3(a), shows the 4 coordinated arrangement of the atoms within the cubic unit cell each atom is at the centre of a tetrahedron with its four bonds directed to the four corners of the tetrahedron. It is not a close-packed structure (atoms in close-packed structures have 12, not four, neighbours) so its density is low. 

The three-dimensional, quantitative nature of STM and SFM data permit in-depth statistical analysis of the surface that can include contributions from features 10 nm across or smaller. By contrast, optical and stylus profilometers average over areas a few hundred A across at best, and more typically a pm. Vertical resolution for SFM / STM is sub-A, better than that of other profilometers. STM and SFM are excellent high-resolution profilometers. 

STM and SFM are free from many of the artifacts that afflict other kinds of profilometers. Optical profilometers can experience complicated phase shifts when materials with different optical properties are encountered. The SFM is sensitive to topography oidy, independent of the optical properties of the surface. (STM may be sensitive to the optical properties of the material inasmuch as optical properties are related to electronic structure.) The tips of traditional stylus profilometers exert forces that can damage the surfaces of soft materials, whereas the force on SFM tips is many orders of magnitude lower. SFM can image even the tracks left by other stylus profilometers. 

The three-dimensional, digital nature of SFM and STM data makes the instruments excellent high-resolution profilometers. Like traditional stylus or optical profilometers, scanning probe microscopes provide reliable height information. However, traditional profilometers scan in one dimension only and cannot match SPM s height and lateral resolution. 

Profilometry of softer materials, such as polymers, is also possible with SFM, and with STM if the sample is conducting. Low forces on the SFM tip allow imaging of materials whose surfaces are degraded by traditional stylus profilometry. However, when the surface is soft enough that it deforms under pressure from the SFM tip, resolution will be degraded and topography may not be representative of the true... 

Every material sputters at a characteristic rate, which can lead to significant amb ity in the presentation of depth profile measurements by sputtering. Before an accurate profile can be provided, the relative sputtering rates of the components of a material must be independently known and included, even though the total depth of the profile is normally determined (e.g., by stylus profilometer). To first order, SNMS offers a solution to this amb ity, since a measure of the total number of atoms being sputtered from the surface is provided by summing all RSF- and... 

The significance of instrument band width and modulation transfer function was discussed in connection with Equation (3) to characterize the roughness of nominally smooth surfaces. The mechanical (stylus) profilometer has a nonlinear response, and, strictly speaking, has no modulation transfer function because of this. The smallest spatial wavelength which the instrument can resolve, 4nin> given in terms of the stylus radius rand the amplitude aoi the structure as... 

R, D. Jacobson, S. R. Wilson, G. A. Al-Jumaily, J. R, McNeil, and J. M. Bennett. Microstructure Characterization by Angle-Resolved Scatter and Comparison to Measurements Made by Other Techniques. To be published in AppL Opt. This work discusses the band width and modulation transfer function of the scatterometer, stylus profilometer, optical pro-filometer, and total integrated scattering systems, and gives results of mea suring several surhices using all techniques. 

S. R, Wilson, G. A. Al-Jumaily, and J. R. McNeil. Nonlinear Characteristics of a Stylus Profilometer. Opt. Eng. 26,953, 1987. This describes modeling stylus profilometer response characteristics and explains their shortcomings. 

Griffel, m. style, stylus slate pencil, pencil (Bot.) style. 

Meissel, m. chisel cutting tool bit stylus Med.) pledget. 

Principles In brush or tampon plating, a pad or stylus soaked in the plating solution is attached to the anode (usually inert), the article to be plated being the cathode. A voltage of about 6 V is applied and the pad moved over the localised area to be plated. The pad can be of cotton wool or plastic foam, and any part which does not require to be plated can be masked off with a suitable lacquer. After plating for half a minute or so, the solution in the pad is replenished. 

Other means of identification sometimes used satisfactorily involve chemical etching of the surface (not to be generally recommended), or the formation of letters or numbers by means of a vibrating stylus. The former is advantageous in studies of stress-corrosion cracking in which stamped symbols could lead to regions of stress concentration. 

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to characterize dendrimers that have been adsorbed onto a surface such as silica. AFM involves moving a finely tipped stylus across a surface and monitoring the tip movements as it traces the surface topography. In studying adsorbed dendrimers, samples can be scanned repeatedly and in a variety of directions. When this is done, it is found that all the images are the same. True dendrimers form objects of only one size. 

The approach described represents one more step toward the realization of a completely stand-alone single-electron junction based on nanoparticles and produced in organic matrix. Quantum dot synthesis directly on the tip of a metal stylus does not require the use of STM for localizing the particle position and requires only the use of atomically flat electrodes and a feedback system for maintaining a desirable double-barrier structure. 

For the balanced beam-scrape adhesion test, ASTM-2197, weights were added to a commercial balanced beam tester. The kind of scratch produced by the stylus with the different loadings was recorded and served as a measure of film hardness. Coatings which are not scratched to bare metal by 500 g are desirable. 

Thickness Measurement. The thickness of poly(I) at different coverages was obtained using a Tencor alpha-step 100 surface profile measuring system. Electrodes used were glass slides coated with Pt by electron beam evaporation. In order to produce a "step" across which the stylus of the surface profiler was drawn, Apiezon N grease was applied to part of the electrode surface and was removed with CH2CI2 after derivatization with poly(I). 

Surface roughness was measured according to ANSI standard 1346.1-(1978) using a Tencor Instruments Alpha-Step 200 stylus profilometer located at the National Nanofabrication Facility of Cornell. Five surface roughness measurements were made for each sample and their average values recorded. Details of the experimental apparatus set-up and its operation are given elsewhere (Dems, B. C. et. al. Inti. Polvm. Proc.. in press.). 

Table II summarizes surface roughness values measured for PMMA and VMCH samples etched for 1.0 minute at 35mTorr at various power densities. Although the measured values of 80 - 105 A fall within the ranges obtained from the interferometer and transition layer theory, there is no significant variation with power density. Differences in surface roughness between pre-etched films of PMMA and VMCH are also negligible according to the stylus measurements.

Surface Roughness measured with Tencor Instruments Alpha-Step 200 stylus profilometer per ANSI Standard 1346.1-(1978)... 

We first experimented with the Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) in order to measure the ablation rate in 1987 (12). The only technique used before was the stylus profilometer which revealed enough accuracy for etch rate of the order of 0.1 pm, but was unable to probe the region of the ablation threshold where the etch rate is expressed in a few A/pulse. Polymer surfaces are easily damaged by the probe tip and the meaning of these measurements are often questionable. Scanning electron microscopy (21) and more recently interferometry (22) were also used. The principle of the QCM was demonstrated in 1957 by Sauerbrey (22) and the technique was developed in thin film chemistiy. analytical and physical chemistry (24). The equipment used in this work is described in previous publications (25). When connected to an appropriate oscillating circuit, the basic vibration frequency (FQ) of the crystal is 5 MHz. When a film covers one of the electrodes, a negative shift <5F, proportional to its mass, is induced ... 

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