Recent advances have been made on two fronts regarding the capability of the atomic force microscope (AFM) to characterize the mechanical response of polymers. Phase imaging with the AFM has emerged as a powerful technique, providing contrast enhancement of topographic features in some cases and, in other cases, revealing heterogeneities in the polymer microstructure that are not apparent from the topographic image. The enhanced contrast provided by phase images often allows for identification of different material constituents. However, while the phase changes of the oscillating probe are associated with energy dissipation between the probe tip and the sample surface, the relationship between this energy dissipation and the sample properties is not well understood.

As the popularity of phase imaging has grown, the capability of the AFM to measure nanoscale indentation response of polymers has also been explored. Both techniques are ideal for the evaluation of multi-phase and multi-component polymer systems.