Band excitation Kelvin probe force microscopy utilizing photothermal excitation

Liam Collins, Stephen Jesse, Nina Balke, Brian J. Rodriguez, Sergei Kalinin, Qian Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

A multifrequency open loop Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) approach utilizing photothermal as opposed to electrical excitation is developed. Photothermal band excitation (PthBE)-KPFM is implemented here in a grid mode on a model test sample comprising a metal-insulator junction with local charge-patterned regions. Unlike the previously described open loop BE-KPFM, which relies on capacitive actuation of the cantilever, photothermal actuation is shown to be highly sensitive to the electrostatic force gradient even at biases close to the contact potential difference (CPD). PthBE-KPFM is further shown to provide a more localized measurement of true CPD in comparison to the gold standard ambient KPFM approach, amplitude modulated KPFM. Finally, PthBE-KPFM data contain information relating to local dielectric properties and electronic dissipation between tip and sample unattainable using conventional single frequency KPFM approaches.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104102
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume106
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 9 2015

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