Cleaning and hydrophilization of atomic force microscopy silicon probes

The effect of surface cleaning on the hydrophilicity of commercial atomic force microscopy (AFM) silicon probes and on the adhesive force measurements in water and air is investigated. The presence of water soluble contaminants at the tip-sample contact has lowered the capillary pressure in the water bridge formed by capillary condensation at the AFM tip-sample contact, which has consequently lowered the adhesive force.