Improving lateral resolution of ambient electrostatic force microscopy by intermittent contact method. Issue 169 (12th February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Dongzi; Ding, Xidong; Xu, Honglei; Lin, Guocong; Chen, Dihu
• Is Part Of: Integrated ferroelectrics. Issue 169(2016)
• Page Start: 96
• Page End: 106
• Publication Date: 2016-02-12
• Subjects: Electrostatic force microscopy -- lateral resolution -- tip-sample distance; Ferroelectric devices -- Periodicals; Integrated circuits -- Periodicals; 537.244805
• DOI: 10.1080/10584587.2016.1163200
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-4587

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) including its derivative, Kelvin probe force microscopy, is widely used to investigate mesoscopic/nanoscopic conducting/semiconducting structures and electrical interactions. However, the resolution of EFM in ambient is largely limited by the applicable force-detection techniques. This work demonstrates that the lateral resolution of ambient EFM can be significantly improved using an intermittent contact method in conjunction with a resonant multi-frequency method for electrostatic force detection. A lateral resolution of sub-10 nm is obtained. The high-resolution contrast reflects the variation of surface potential in sample on a nanoscale. The mechanism, which is attributed to the decreased effective tip-sample distance, is elucidated by theoretical analysis. The newly developed technique can be easily integrated with existing techniques to herald the next generation of high-resolution probe techniques for various nanoscopic applications.