Renormalization of the model describing dynamic atomic force microscopy is shown to
provide a simple and robust interpretation of cantilever dynamics as a single spring and
mass with frequency-dependent cantilever stiffness and damping parameters.
Renormalization predicts a bifurcation in the free-space cantilever resonance that leads to
the occurrence of multiple stable resonance modes experimentally observed during
cantilever-sample “contact.” The bifurcation results from the coupling of the cantilever modes …