Quartz tuning forks are employed in scanning atomic force microscopy (AFM), as well as in some derived techniques, as high sensitivity detectors of interactions, of both conservative and dissipative kind, between the AFM nanometric probe and the investigated surface. However, the contributions of the two kinds of interaction result as convoluted in the sensor response, preventing fully quantitative measurements of the quantities of interest. The state-of-the-art solution resorts to modified quartz sensors in order to be independently sensitive to both the interaction kinds, although giving up most of their sensitivity. The proposed technology modifies tuning fork sensors, in both their structure and driving modality, in order to maintain their characteristic high sensitivity, but at the same time, the separation of the effects of the two kinds of interaction.
Employment of the proposed sensor could lead to improved performance of scanning probe microscopy systems like AFM and related techniques, by combining the typical high sensitivity of tuning fork sensors to better discrimination of the two components of the force signal. This would be obtained at the expense of some complication of the driving modality of the sensor, through additional electronics.