Fast, high-resolution surface potential measurements in air with heterodyne Kelvin probe force microscopy

Abstract

Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) adapts an atomic force microscope to measure electric potential on surfaces at nanometer length scales. Here we demonstrate that Heterodyne-KPFM enables scan rates of several frames per minute in air, and concurrently maintains spatial resolution and voltage sensitivity comparable to frequency-modulation KPFM, the current spatial resolution standard. Two common classes of topography-coupled artifacts are shown to be avoidable with H-KPFM. A second implementation of H-KPFM is also introduced, in which the voltage signal is amplified by the first cantilever resonance for enhanced sensitivity. The enhanced temporal resolution of H-KPFM can enable the imaging of many dynamic processes, such as such as electrochromic switching, phase transitions, and device degredation (battery, solar, etc.), which take place over seconds to minutes and involve changes in electric potential at nanometer lengths.

14 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• The effect of patch potentials in Casimir force measurements determined by heterodyne Kelvin probe force microscopy
• Intermodulation electrostatic force microscopy for imaging surface photo-voltage
• Electrostatic patch effects in Casimir force experiments performed in the sphere-plane geometry

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Mid-infrared time-resolved photoconduction in black phosphorus
• Architecture of nanoscale ferroelectric domains in GaMo4S8
• Hidden surface photovoltages revealed by pump probe KPFM
• Steady-state and transient behavior in dynamic atomic force microscopy
• Lagrangian and impedance spectroscopy treatments of electric force microscopy
• Effect of lateral tip motion on multifrequency atomic force microscopy
• Vector Electric Field Measurement via Position-Modulated Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy