Distinguishing elastic shear deformation from friction on the surfaces of molecular crystals

Elastic deformation on the surfaces of molecular crystals can be imaged using a variant of lateral force microscopy in which the tip is scanned parallel to the cantilever axis. The shear force transverse to this direction has a distinctly different origin than the friction force as determined by the tip velocity and temperature dependence of the cantilever torque. An elastic deformation model for the tip-sample interaction predicts the crystallographic anisotropy of the transverse shear contrast, establishing its connection with the relative magnitude of the in-plane elastic tensor components.