TABLE OF CONTENTS In section five of Chapter 6, we are concerned about the measurements of nanomechanical properties in three-dimension of solid or liquid-like polymeric interfaces. In the past few years, the technique that showed most promising results and innovative new measuring modes is the scanning force microscopy (SFM), which is the focal point of the following discussion.
Since the inception of the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) by Binnig and Rohrer [57], various nanoscale scanning devices evolved, summarized under the term of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) [58]. SPM techniques have been in strong demand due to their real space imaging capability on the micron and submicron scale. One of the early desires has been to analyze quantitatively surface properties on the nanoscale. In that respect, the force modulated SFM is unique and very promising [47] , [53] [59] , [76].
The SFM force modulation mode was introduced by Maivald et al. in 1991 [59]. This new nanoscale contrast mechanism relies on variation in the surface mechanical properties. In the subsequent years, researchers have applied this technique successfully to soft materials such as polymers [22] , [47] , [53] , [59] , [62] , [64] , [65] , [67] [78].
This paragraph intends to highlight some of the work accomplished by SFM where nanomechanical properties of polymer films and polymeric surfaces were investigated. Although the SFM force modulation mode...
