Low Cost AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy)

Manufacturing and testing of the piezoelectric

disc scanner

Report of experiments/works
(Date of submission: 16.05.2010)

Prepared By: Faik Cokunsu

Supervisor: Jrgen Hildenbrand

Introduction:
The first part of our Low Cost AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) project is the manufacturing of the
Disc Scanner (DS) unit.
As a basic idea, to scan the surface of a material we need a device which can move three dimensional
in a microscopic level. Therefore in our project we are going to use piezoelectric disc to fulfill this
requirement.
What is piezoelectric disc?
Piezoelectric disc is a device consisting of a thin metal substrate usually stainless steel, piezoelectric
layer isolated and glued on top of it and silver electrode layer deposited on the piezoelectric
material. When a positive voltage is applied to the piezoelectric material which means between silver
electrode and metal substrate then piezoelectric material gets enlarged and this effect bends the
whole system like in bimetal effect. In contrast piezoelectric material will be shrinked with negative
voltages. This device is so-called piezoelectric disc which is used to create an acoustic resonant for
warning signals, beeps etc. in buzzers (sketch-1)

Neutral position

Negative voltage is applied

Positive voltage is applied

Sketch 1

Structure of Disc Scanner:

The mentioned piezoelectric disc (PE disc) will be used to build the DS. For the DS a PE layer of a PE
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disc is cut into for quarters which allow us to apply four different voltages to the system. This process
was made by using laser cutting machine.
We can now move the middle point of the disc by applying voltages to the quarters as shown in
sketch 2.

Sketch 2
Please note that the schematics above are quite exaggerated. The lateral movement of the tip of the
cantilever fixed in the middle of DS is only some micrometers.
The experiments and practical work that have been done to achieve the mentioned results above:
In our laser lab., we use PE disc that we took from electrical instrument lab. To cut it by using laser
cut. These are the parameters to cut only piezo layer:
Vector Cut; 15% Power; 3% Speed (Black Color)
Obviously laser machine is burning the slits while cutting therefore to increase the resistance
between quadrants it is very useful to clean the cut slits by means of a razor or a sharp knife. After
this process minimum resistance between quadrants shall be about 20 M.
For the connection of cables an epoxy glue and conductive silver paint is used. Silver paint is a must
Instead of soldering because during a soldering process PE material can easily be damaged.

Picture 1

As it is shown in the Picture 1 for the testing and calculating of the movement range of the middle
point of the DS we used a Si mirror to reflect a laser beam to a large distance. This let us to calculate
the angles vertical angles as a function of the applied voltage.
To achieve the calculation of the vertical angles according to the applied voltage following setup was
built (Sketch 3).

Sketch 3
All the materials in this test setup were made by PMMA and they all were made by using laser
machine.
A Laser pointer holder
B Disc Scanner holder
Disc scanner holder is designed to hold the DS tightly. The upper material will squeeze the DS from its
surroundings like a sandwich (Sketch 4).
The idea behind this experiment setup is that a laser pointer
located on the laser pointer holder (A) propagates a laser beam
which reflects from the mirror fixed in the middle of the DS and
reflecting to a distance object like wall. By this method we are able
to observe the movements on the mirror and calculate the small
angles of this movement. Please see the introductory sketch,
Sketch 5.

Sketch 4

Sketch 5

The beam shown in Sketch 5 is reflected to the wall which is 5,085m ahead of the mirror.
Therefore, we can calculate the change in the by using Pythagoras theorem.
My approach to calculate the angles:

Picture 2

Picture 2 shows the real locations of each part. As it is seen the beam is reflecting back to the wall.
The ruler on the wall is located such a way that the red pointer of the beam is always in the 0mm
while no voltage is applied to the DS. By observing red pointer on the ruler I could record all steps
(downward or upward) of the red pointer on the wall according to the applied voltage. The table
including this information will be given after this section.
Since we already know both the distance between Si mirror and the wall, and deviation of pointer on
the wall we can calculate the tilting angle of the mirror. Therefore,
A: Angle between incident and reflecting beam (Deg)
B: Distance between wall and mirror (5085mm)
C: Deviation in mm according to the applied voltage to the DS.

Tan (A) = C/B; Tan (C/B) = A;

Therefore tilting angle of the mirror is A/2.
Also, we can calculate the lateral movement of the mirror
by using same method. It is already mentioned that the
height of the mirror is 5mm. By using again Pythagoras theorem
we can this time calculate the lateral movements (D).
D = 5.sin(90 A/2) [mm]
(Sketch 6)
Sketch 6

Measurement Results:
Deviations according to the
quarters
Applied Voltage
[Vdc]*

Red**

Brown**

0
0
0
5
-0,5
1
10
-1,5
2,5
15
-2,5
3
20
-3,5
3,5
25
-4
4
30
-5
4,3
35
-6
4,65
40
-7
5
45
-7,5
5,4
50
-8
5,9
55
-9
6,25
60
-9,5
6,65
66,3
-10
7
* This column indicates the positive voltage applied to the related quarter. The steel substrate is
always 0 volt.
** Please see picture 3 for the location of red and brown quarters.

Picture 3

Graphical indications:

Vertical Deviation - Applied Voltage

8
6

Vertical Deviation [mm]

4
2
0
-2

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60 66,3

Brown Quarter

-4
-6
-8
-10
-12

Calculation Results:
Red Quarter
Applied Voltage
Vertical
[Vdc]
Deviation [mm]
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
66,3

Red Quarter

0
-0,5
-1,5
-2,5
-3,5
-4
-5
-6
-7
-7,5
-8
-9
-9,5
-10

Tilting angle of the Lateral movement of the

mirror (A/2) [Deg]
mirror [um]
0
0,00281690
0,00845070
0,01408451
0,01971831
0,02253521
0,02816901
0,03380280
0,03943660
0,04225349
0,04507039
0,05070418
0,05352107
0,05633796

0
-0,491642082
-1,47492619
-2,458210126
-3,441493777
-3,93313546
-4,916418469
-5,899700908
-6,882982662
-7,374623247
-7,866263618
-8,849543661
-9,341183305
-9,832822678

Brown Quarter
Applied Voltage
Vertical
[Vdc]
Deviation [mm]
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
66,3

0
1
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,3
4,65
5
5,4
5,9
6,25
6,65
7

Tilting angle of the Lateral movement of the

mirror (A/2) [Deg]
mirror [um]
0
0,00563380
0,01408451
0,01690141
0,01971831
0,02253521
0,02422535
0,02619718
0,02816901
0,03042253
0,03323942
0,03521125
0,03746477
0,03943660

0
0,98328415
2,458210126
2,949851994
3,441493777
3,93313546
4,228120416
4,572269475
4,916418469
5,309731519
5,801372693
6,145521415
6,538834133
6,882982662

Graphical Indication:

Lateral Deviation [um]

Lateral Movements Of Mirror - Applied Voltage

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1 0
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9
-10
-11

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60 66,3

Red Quarter
Brown Quarter

Example calculation for scanner distance: The Scanning Voltage To Scan 10 Au(gold) Atoms:

By using the information that we have collected so far, we can calculate the required voltage to scan
the surface of a gold material. Calculations will be done to scan a distance which covers 10 Au atoms.
Above schematic describes all information required for the calculation. We assume that our sample
holder is 5,00mm long. Since the diameter of one Au atom is 2 x 1,439 we can scan 10 Au atoms by
scanning 2,878nm range.
2 x 1,439e-10 x 10 = 2,878e-9m
arctan[(2,878e-9)/(5e-3)] = 3,297945e-5
- From the Calculation Results of Red Quarter we know that;
Applied Voltage (Vdc)
0
5

=>
=>
=>

Deviation in angle A/2 ()

0
0,00281690

Therefore we can calculate the required voltage for 3,297945e-5 deviation by using simple
proportion.
(5 x 3,297945e-5) / 0,00281690 = 0,058538 V => 58,538 mV
- From the Calculation Results of Brown Quarter we know that;
Applied Voltage (Vdc)
0
5

=>
=>
=>

Deviation in angle A/2 ()

0
0,00563380

(5 x 3,297945e-5) / 0,00563380 = 0,02926927 V => 29,269 mV

Atomic Radii and Interatomic Distances in Metals / Linus Pauling, contribution from the Gates and
Crellin Lab. of Chem., California Institute of Technology (see attachment).
Linus Pauling (1901-1994) was an American chemist who won Nobel Prize in two different fields.
Observations / Comments:
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- I observed that brown quarter didnt show very accurate deviations when I repeat the experiment
but deviations were usually close to each other.
In the red quarter however, deviations according to the applied voltages were mostly accurate. There
were no differences between repeated measurements.
- Sometimes mirror didnt move back to its original position although I set the voltage to 0 volt. I
think due to capacitance effect of the DS, there is still some voltage remaining after setting of the
voltage to 0 volt. To avoid this affect it necessary to short circuit the electrode and substrate every
time.
** All related photos taken during the experiment are attached.
Faik Cokunsu

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