Quantitative contact spectroscopy by atomic force acoustic microscopy

The evaluation of the cantilever vibration spectra at ultrasonic frequencies in an AFM is presented in order to descern local elastic data quantitatively. In imaging, our technique allows e. g. to make the domains in ferroelectric ceramics visible due to their elastic contrast and anisotropy. The elasticity of nanocrystalline ferrite films was measured using the contact resonances.