Application of a low-cost piezoelectric displacement estimation technique based on laser interferometry for hysteresis open-loop compensation in an AFM scanner

In this paper an open-loop actuation strategy based on a Prandtl-Ishlinskii hysteresis model is applied to a commercial atomic force microscope, equipped with an open-loop piezoelectric tube scanner. Estimates of the scanner vertical displacement, necessary to train the model, are obtained by exploiting the interference pattern generated by the laser beam used in the instrument to sense the cantilever deflection. Experimental results show that the undesired hysteresis effects are drastically reduced.