Analytical methods to derive the elastic modulus of soft and adhesive materials from atomic force microcopy force measurements

We present new DMT‐based and JKR‐based methods to derive the elastic modulus of sample surfaces from an atomic force microscope force‐distance curve (DMT: Derjaguin‐Muller‐Toporov, JKR: Johnson–Kendall–Roberts). Application of the methods to the Maugis–Dugdale curves revealed that the JKR‐based method determines very accurate moduli for Maugis' transitional parameter λ > 0.3; however, the DMT‐based method generally estimates much less...