Abstract: A method and apparatus for observing a specimen in atomic force microscopy with a vibrating cantilever maintained in resonance while a probe attached to the cantilever is maintained in contact with the specimen. The Q factor of the cantilever is determined based upon the detected amplitude.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an elastic surface-wave device, and more particularly to an elastic surface-wave device of a greatly increased performance, compared with a prior art elastic surface-wave device, and which is compact. The elastic surface-wave device includes a substrate including a surface having a region which is formed by at least a part of a spherical surface and is circularly continuous, and a surface acoustic wave generator which is provided in the surface region of the substrate and generates surface acoustic waves propagating in a continuous direction of the surface region. The surface acoustic wave generator generates surface acoustic waves in such a manner these waves can propagate only in the continuous direction without being diffused in a direction crossing the continuous direction along the surface region.

Abstract: A method of measuring physical properties using a cantilever comprises bringing a tip attached at one end of a cantilever into contact with a sample and causing a vibrational force of a frequency between 10 and 1000 times the fundamental resonance frequency of the cantilever to act on the cantilever.

Abstract: An atomic force microscope comprises a vibrating device for producing transverse vibrations between a sample and a probe and a vertical load-adjusting device for adjusting the vertical load between the sample and the probe. The sample is vibrated transversely, thus inducing a deflecting vibration on a cantilever. The phase and the amplitude of this deflecting vibration are simultaneously measured. The dependence of the measured value on the vertical load between the sample and the probe is measured. Thus, the friction between the sample and the probe is analyzed.

Abstract: An atomic force microscope includes a vibrator which imparts vibration between a probe and a sample such that a relative vertical vibration and a relative lateral vibration are superimposed. A method of observing a sample with the microscope includes the steps of imparting phase-controlled vertical and lateral vibration between a sample and a probe so that the probe moves along a straight line or a ring relative to the sample, controlling the direction of the straight line or the ring, and measuring the amplitude and/or the phase of the bending vibration and/or the torsional vibration of a cantilever excited by the vibration.

Abstract: An acoustic imaging method for nondestructive evaluation of materials comprises the steps of measuring the temperature dependence of the acoustic wave transmittance of the material in advance, cooling the material to a temperature at which its acoustic wave transmittance is high, and carrying out acoustic imaging.

Abstract: A method of measuring the depth of a microcrack. A sample which has a crack substantially parallel to the surface and slightly inclined is set in the neighborhood of the focal point of a converging acoustic beam, and the depth of a microcrack of the sample irradiated with the beam is measured on the basis of the phenomenon that the reflected wave intensity assumes a minimum value when the product of the crack depth and the frequency of the acoustic wave is equal to a half integral multiple of the velocity of the acoustic waves in the sample.

Abstract: The velocity of the surface acoustic wave of a test piece is determined by projecting an acoustic wave in the form of pulses through an acoustic lens onto the test piece thereby allowing the acoustic wave to form a focal point within the test piece, causing the projected acoustic wave to be separated into a component returned in consequence of specular reflection on the surface of the test piece, a component returned after having been propagated in the form of a leaky surface acoustic wave along the surface of the test piece, and a component returned in consequence of inner reflection on the boundary of the acoustic lens, measuring the intervals separating the times at which these three components are received at a common wave receiver, and calculating the velocity based on the time intervals thus found.