TY - JOUR A1 - Cappella, Brunero T1 - Force-distance curves on lubricant films: An approach to the characterization of the shape of the AFM tip N2 - Force-distance curves have been acquired with an atomic force microscope on perfluorpolyether films. It is shown that curves acquired on films of different thickness, at different rates and with different dwell times can be overlapped by rescaling the time or distance axis.When the time or distance axis is rescaled,the force depends only on the surface tension of perfluorpolyether and on geometrical properties of thetip (aperture and perimeter of the tip at a given distance from the apex). Hence, curves acquired with thesame tip overlap. By comparing curves acquired at different rates the dynamics of tip-wetting can be investigated. Fur-thermore, rescaled force-distance curves have been matched with the perimeter of cross sections ofthe tip, i.e. with the perimeter of the three-phase contact line. Such measurements pave the way for anon-destructive investigation of the tip shape. KW - Lubricant films KW - Surface tension KW - Atomic force microscopy KW - Force-distance curves KW - AFM tip shape PY - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micron.2016.11.006 SN - 0968-4328 VL - 93 SP - 20 EP - 28 AN - OPUS4-38391 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -