Quadrature phase interferometer for high resolution force spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a highly sensitive quadrature phase interferometer for AFM that achieves sub-femtometer resolution, long-term stability, and a wide measurement range, outperforming existing methods.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel interferometer design with low environmental susceptibility and calibrated spectral range, enabling high-resolution force measurements over larger deflections.

Findings

Achieves resolution down to 2.5e-15 m/√Hz

Demonstrates excellent long-term stability

Provides calibrated measurements over a wide spectral range

Abstract

In this article, we present a deflection measurement setup for Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). It is based on a quadrature phase differential interferometer: we measure the optical path difference between a laser beam reflecting above the cantilever tip and a reference beam reflecting on the static base of the sensor. A design with very low environmental susceptibility and another allowing calibrated measurements on a wide spectral range are described. Both enable a very high resolution (down to $\SI{2.5E-15}{m/\sqrt{Hz}}$), illustrated by thermal noise measurements on AFM cantilevers. They present an excellent long-term stability, and a constant sensitivity independent of the optical phase of the interferometer. A quick review shows that our precision is equaling or out-performing the best results reported in the literature, but for a much larger deflection range, up to a few $\SI{}{\micro m}$.