Role of the driving laser position on atomic force microscopy cantilevers excited by photothermal and radiation pressure effects

The excitation efficiency of the photothermal effect on coated microcantilevers has been studied for different flexural modes, both experimentally and theoretically, showing that the position of the driving laser is crucial to obtain a significant oscillation. Moreover, the characterization has been carried out on uncoated cantilevers, where the radiation pressure is not negligible with respect to the photothermal effect, showing that the laser position can be used to select which physical phenomenon is dominating the cantilever dynamics.