UCLA

We propose a new scan waveform ideally suited for high-speed atomic force microscopy. It is an optimization of the Archimedean spiral scan path with respect to the X,Y scanner bandwidth and scan speed. The resulting waveform uses a constant angular velocity spiral in the center and transitions to constant linear velocity toward the periphery of the scan. We compare it with other scan paths and demonstrate that our novel spiral best satisfies the requirements of high-speed atomic force microscopy by utilizing the scan time most efficiently with excellent data density and data distribution. For accurate X,Y, and Z positioning our proposed scan pattern has low angular frequency and low linear velocities that respect the instrument's mechanical limits. Using Sensor Inpainting we show artifact-free high-resolution images taken at two frames per second with a 2.2 μ m scan size on a moderately large scanner capable of 40 μm scans.