A rate adaptive control method for Improving the imaging speed of atomic force microscopy.

A simple rate adaptive control method is proposed to improve the imaging speed of the atomic force microscope (AFM) in the paper. Conventionally, the probe implemented on the AFM scans the sample surface at a constant rate, resulting in low time efficiency. Numerous attempts have been made to realize high-speed AFMs, while little efforts are put into changing the constant-rate scanning. Here we report a rate adaptive control method based on variable-rate scanning. The method automatically sets the imaging speed for the x scanner through the analysis of the tracking errors in the z direction at each scanning point, thus improving the dynamic tracking performance of the z scanner. The development and functioning of the rate adaptive method are demonstrated, as well as how the approach significantly achieves faster scans and a higher resolution AFM imaging.