Data processing in force curve mapping

Force curve mapping is expected to become a useful technique for material analysis. In order to analyze the huge amount of force curve data involved in such mapping, we have developed specialized data processing software. This software can extract three types of surface properties: adhesion force, topographic height and elasticity. We applied our data processing technique to force curve mapping of, first, particles on a substrate and, second, a silicon nitride membrane window. Our data processing successfully extracted those surface properties for these samples, demonstrating its effectiveness. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved