Theoretical Simulations of Scanning Probe Microscopy for Organic and Inorganic Materials

Current topics are introduced from the results for the JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) project for the development of the theoretical simulator of scanning probe microscopy. In spite of the crucial role played by the theoretical simulation for understanding experimental results, the theoretical calculations so far tried have been computationally very demanding. Thus one of the aim of this project is the development of efficient methods for the simulation of STM(Scanning Tunneling Microscopy), AFM(Atomic Force Microscopy) and KFM(Kelvin Force Microscopy) and their spectroscopy. Toward this purpose the simplified and efficient calculation program, as well as user friendly GUI tools for the wide range users are aimed in the JST SPM project. Another targets of the project are the development of a new frontier of the SPM simulation, in particular, for supporting experiments on biological and organic molecular systems, and for the measurement in liquids.

We will discuss for the STM simulation the inelastic tunneling processes and decorated tip model. As for the AFM, we consider how to treat the dynamic cantilever motion in liquids, and the theoretical simulation for some of the protein molecules.