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A new atomic force microscope (AFM) for direct comparison measurements of step heights and crystalline lattice spacing has been developed. The AFM is equipped with a cantilever with a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film sensor, a reference crystal technique with a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) for step height measurement, high accuracy mechanisms, and an interferometer. A mono-atomic step on a surface of sapphire (0001) has been measured to show the performance of the AFM. The measured step height of the mono-atomic step calibrated by the interferometer in real time was 0.21±0.07 nm (1σ) and from the known lattice constant of graphite of 0.246 nm, a step height of 0.19±0.05 nm (1σ) can be derived for the sapphire sample, both of which agree with the known value of a single step of 0.22 nm.
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Fujii et al. (1999) studied this question.
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