Conventional cantilevers with typical spring constants of 10 N/m need large oscillation amplitudes to avoid 'jump-to-contact' effects for high resolution imaging. The purely electrical QPlus sensor is based on a quartz tuning fork with a spring constant of ~ 1800 N/m and is the ideal sensor for the detection of short range forces with high resolution. This has been demonstrated by imaging of the rest atoms of the Si(111) 7x7 surface. The QPlus sensor is ideal to be included in STM‘s (VT STM, LT STM, MULTISCAN STM) and also as a complementary sensor for beam deflection instruments. |