Band excitation Kelvin probe force microscopy utilizing photothermal excitation
- School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 (Ireland)
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 (United States)
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.
- OSTI ID:
- 22395737
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 106; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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