Atomic force acoustic microscopy: Influence of the lateral contact stiffness on the elastic measurements

•Elastic properties of surfaces by atomic force acoustic microscopy.•Influence of the lateral contact stiffness on the elastic measurements.•Regions on the flexural vibration curves independent of the kS/kN ratio.•Experimental study and finite element analysis of the dynamic behavior of AFM probes.•This analysis reduces uncertainties in the measurements of elastic properties. Atomic force acoustic microscopy is a dynamic technique where the resonances of a cantilever, that has its tip in contact with the sample, are used to quantify local elastic properties of surfaces. Since the contact resonance frequencies (CRFs) monotonically increase with the tip-sample contact stiffness, they are used to evaluate the local elastic properties of the surfaces through a suitable contact mechanical model. The CRFs depends on both, normal and lateral contact stiffness, kN and kS respectively, where the last one is taken either as constant (kS