A unifying view on some experimental effects in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy

Several experimental effects that occur in tapping-mode atomic force microscopy are examined: apparent hysteresis effects in force probes and frequency sweeps and distortions in imaging. It is found through examinations of the phase space that they can all be reduced to one common cause: the existence of more than one stable state of the tip vibration for certain parameters. It is shown that the experimental effects can be explained considering only the phase space under the assumption that measurement noise exists. Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical and experimental findings.