Weaker cantilevers do not penetrate the sample as much as stiffer ones.
Weaker cantilevers are less sensitive to the sample's materials properties.
Clearly, the tip penetrates the sample to different depths depending on the material and the tip-sample distance. One way to reduce this height artifact would be to use a weak enough cantilever so as to bring the tip's interaction with all of the samples into the anharmonic regime . In other words, the cantilever should be weak enough such that the tip-sample interaction is much stronger, thereby preventing the tip from significantly penetrating the sample. The predicted cantilever responses for mica and polystyrene are presented in Fig. Only approach curves are displayed.