Adhesion detachment and movement of gold nanoclusters induced by dynamic atomic force microscopy

Via dissipation processes in dynamic atomic force microscopy, we have investigate,in controlled ambient conditions, adhesion and frictional properties of deposited nanoclusters.Specifically, we have considered gold nanoclusters with nominal diameter of 13 and 24 nmphysisorbed on silicon substrate. The manipulation experiment has shown unambiguously thatthe Amplitude Modulation-AFM method (AM-AFM) and the adopted calibration procedure letus to distinguish and measure the size dependence of the energy detachment threshold fordeposited objects down to the nanometer scale. Moreover, allowing to switch easily and withhigh repeatability between imaging and manipulation during the AFM scans, this operationalmethod proves to be a promising tool for inducing controlled spatial displacements at theselength scales.