Effect of raised temperature on a stainless-steel surface by ambient atomic-force microscopy

Abstract

We report images from atomic force microscopy (AFM) of a heated metallic surface performed under an ambient environment. The stainless steel surface was heated up to 121C, which is limited only by the capacitive heating element used (100W). We observed that the topography of the surface changes dramatically. It is found that at high temperatures, the surface appears flat compared with the presence of many round bumps observed on the same sample at room temperature when the ambient humidity is high. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on ambient AFM performed on a metallic surface above 100C.Most AFM systems adopt moving sample stages [1]. In this case, it is difficult to implement heavy heating heating elements and a heat reservoir block. For this experiment, the TAK3 from AT Corporation [2] is used. The sample stage is kept stationary and the heating element (the tip of a soldering iron) is fixed firmly on one side of a surface of the block using a screw.