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On a perfectly flat surface, the amplitude should stabilize at the set point. If the tubes are still blurry after following these steps then you've likely got a thin layer of crud on your nanotubes. If the tubes are still blurry, do a force curve to verify that the tip is intact. If they are still blurry reduce the 'rate' and/or the 'set point'. If tubes are blurry in the xy, verify you are using enough scan lines (try 256 or 512).
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Rather, they should be sharp lines about 20-40 nm thick and a few nm tall.
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When imaging nanotubes they should not be blurry in xy. I find that adjusting the rate so that the scan speed is <10 micron/sec works well in nearly all cases. However, I've found that you actually save time (and headache) by taking a single high quality slow scan rather than a bunch of quick ones with little parameter adjustments in between. The best fix for many imaging problems is simply to lower the 'rate'. Also, 'tuning' these parameters in the first place probably takes ~10 minutes so you're not really saving time anyway. This strategy often backfires though, if you need to return to old AFM images and find they are junk aside from the information you 'tuned' the parameters for. It is tempting to be impatient and try to 'tune' the imaging parameters to get the data you want from a 2 - 5 minute scan. Rule of thumb: “One high quality slow scan is worth ~5 low quality fast scans.”