Application and Multidimensional Analysis of Atomic Force Microscopy in Thickness Measurement of Graphene Oxide

As a crucial measuring tool in nanometrology, atomic force microscope (AFM) provides a direct method for thickness measurement and layer counting. However, the measurement accuracy of this technique is often limited by various factors, including substrate-induced noise and topographic fluctuations of the sample surface, which introduce significant measurement uncertainties and pose challenges for interpreting the true thickness values from the topographic data.

The AFM was employed to characterize the morphology of graphene oxide samples on mica substrates. Based on the principles of least squares method and histogram method, a method comparison experiment was designed to realize the measurement, calculation and analysis of the sample thickness. The results indicated that the thickness values measured by the least squares method and the histogram method for graphene oxide are essentially consistent.