Dear colleagues!
I need your help.
We are now learning a new methodology for us - AFM.
So far only the study of morphology and roughness of samples.
I see the problem of correctly determining the roughness of samples
with non-uniform distribution of defects over the area. Sample of 1*1 sm in size.
Which and how many zones I must choose to scan? In analytical chemistry
for representative sampling, the entire sample (powder) is applied on the surface.
Is divided into 20-25 sections and selection is made from each section in chess order. If you also go to the ACM, I have to scan 25 sites and scan each site with different size: 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 2 μm (so do those skilled in the art). Total 125 scans?! If for each scan 3 minutes, it will be 6 hours! O my God!
Can I limit myself to 4 sections in different areas of the sample? And make only 20 scans?
Better even less? I study literature in detail, but I haven 't found an answer yet.
Appreciate your advice in advance. Sorry my English.
Well, there is no simple answer to that. I guess for your first samples you will have to do more sections and get a feeling for the homogeinity of your samples. If there are lots of deviating features you will have to stick with acquiring lots of images. If you figure out that the mean roughnesses you determine don't change whether you take 5 vs. 25 sample locations, you can decrease your section names.
Always keep in mind: AFM is a time-consuming method, so if you need AFM values put lots of space in your schedule for it. Side note: in many institutes with heavy AFM load handling that method is also a popular side job for undergraduate students.
Dear Jürgen!
Thank you very much for your prompt response! Your professional response is very useful to us. We will definitely use it for our samples we get in my lab. But in the future we have to analyze a wide variety of samples from all employees of our institute! And only 3 of my colleagues will be involved. How to be, or not to be - that 's the question for me. I don 't have so many students. Share experience. May be ask customers to point to the scan location themselves?
Dear Alexander
Refer to the following attachment on " Measuring Surface Roughness of an Optical Thin Film With Scanning Tunneling Microscopes "
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