Application of the equipartition theorem to the thermal excitation of quartz tuning forks
arXiv:1106.3018 · doi:10.1063/1.3627184
Abstract
The deflection signal of a thermally excited force sensor of an atomic force microscope can be analyzed to gain important information about the detector noise and about the validity of the equipartion theorem of thermodynamics. Here, we measured the temperature dependence of the thermal amplitude of a tuning fork and compared it to the expected values based on the equipartition theorem. In doing so, we prove the validity of these assumptions in the temperature range from 140K to 300K. Furthermore, the application of the equipartition theorem to quartz tuning forks at liquid helium temperatures is discussed.
8 pages, 3 figures, published in Applied Physics Letters
Cited by in corpus (5)
- A comparsion of force sensors for atomic force microscopy based on quartz tuning forks and length extensional resonators
- Optimizing atomic resolution of force microscopy in ambient conditions
- Amplitude dependence of image quality in atomically-resolved bimodal atomic microscopy
- Eliminating the effect of acoustic noise on cantilever spring constant calibration
- Calibrating conservative and dissipative response of electrically-driven quartz tuning forks