ABSTRACT
With the atomic force microscope (AFM), the topography of many surfaces can be imaged at high resolution in a vacuum, gas, or a liquid environment. In addition to imaging surfaces, it was soon realized that by measuring force vs. distance curves supplementary information about surface properties such as the charge density, the
local elasticity, or the local surface energy could be obtained and thus the A F M has become an important tool in colloid science to measure surface forces (for reviews see refs [1,2]). To determine surface forces, usually spherical particles of typically 1-10 /xm radius (microspheres) are glued onto tipless cantilevers. By using microspheres of defined radius instead of integrated sharp tips, the interacting geometry can be quantified more easily.
