TY - JOUR A1 - Ignat, Ioan A1 - Schuster, Bernhard A1 - Hafner, Jonas A1 - Kwon, MinHee A1 - Platz, Daniel A1 - Schmid, Ulrich T1 - Intermodal coupling spectroscopy of mechanical modes in micro-cantilevers JF - Beilstein Archives Y1 - 2022/// SN - M3 - doi:10.3762/bxiv.2022.78.v1 N2 - Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is highly regarded as a lens peering into the next discoveries of nanotechnology. Fundamental research in atomic interactions, molecular reactions and biological cell behaviours are key focal points, demanding a continuous increase in resolution and sensitivity. While renowned fields such as optomechanics have marched towards outstanding signal-to-noise ratios, these improvements have yet to find a practical way to AFM. Here we investigate a mechanism as a solution where individual mechanical eigenmodes of a micro-cantilever couple to one another, mimicking optomechanical techniques of reducing thermal noise. We have a look at the most commonly used modes in AFM. Starting with the first two flexural modes of cantilevers and asses the impact of an amplified coupling between them. Following, we expand our investigation to the sea of eigenmodes available in the same structure and find a maximum coupling of 9.38 × 103 Hz/nm between two torsional modes. Through such findings we aim to expand the field of multifrequency AFM with innumerable possibilities leading to improved signal-to-noise ratios, all accessible with no additional hardware. ER -