Kelvin probe force microscopy of the nanoscale electrical surface potential barrier of metal/semiconductor interfaces in ambient atmosphere

• Petr Knotek,
• Tomáš Plecháček,
• Jan Smolík,
• Petr Kutálek,
• Filip Dvořák,
• Milan Vlček,
• Jiří Navrátil and
• Čestmír Drašar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1401–1411, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.138

• revealed that long-time exposure (tens of seconds) to the electrical field leads to deep oxidation and the formation of perturbations greater than 1 µm in height, which hinder the I–V measurements. Keywords: Kelvin probe atomic force microscope; nanoinclusion; Schottky barrier; thermoelectric materials