Cross-sectional Kelvin probe force microscopy on III–V epitaxial multilayer stacks: challenges and perspectives

• Mattia da Lisca,
• José Alvarez,
• James P. Connolly,
• Nicolas Vaissiere,
• Karim Mekhazni,
• Jean Decobert and
• Jean-Paul Kleider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 725–737, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.59

• misleading VCPD value [14]. Kelvin probe force microscopy The following KPFM experimental procedures closely follow those described in [12]. KPFM evaluates the contact potential difference (VCPD) between the surface of metallic and semiconductive samples and a conductive AFM tip, which at equilibrium can be

Studies of probe tip materials by atomic force microscopy: a review

• Ke Xu and
• Yuzhe Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1256–1267, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.104

• channel structures. A faster, one-step technique for growing gold nanowires at the tips of commercial conductive AFM is proposed compared to the above methods. Bakhti et al. [35] grew gold nanowires at the tips of conductive AFM nanoprobes by electroreduction direct deposition based on the deposition of

Comparing the performance of single and multifrequency Kelvin probe force microscopy techniques in air and water

• Jason I. Kilpatrick,
• Emrullah Kargin and
• Brian J. Rodriguez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 922–943, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.82

• conductive AFM probe and a sample, ΔU = Vbias − VCPD, where Vbias may be a combination of DC bias, VDC, and an AC bias, VAC, applied at frequency ωe, for example, Vbias = VDC + VAC sin(ωet). Here, Vbias may be applied either to the cantilever or to the sample. The application of ΔU results in an

• transfer function of the cantilever are present in the literature and that these models may better represent the behavior of the lever in different environments [111][112][113][114][115][116]. A. Amplitude Modulation KPFM (AM) In KPFM-based techniques, a bias is applied between a conductive AFM probe and a

Open-loop amplitude-modulation Kelvin probe force microscopy operated in single-pass PeakForce tapping mode

• Gheorghe Stan and
• Pradeep Namboodiri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 1115–1126, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.83

• the local contact potential difference (CPD) between a conductive AFM probe and a surface, KPFM has been used for qualitative and quantitative electric characterizations. Examples include surface potential, doping, charge profiling, optoelectronic response, and others on various materials and

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• used, in situ, in between exposures to assess the shrinkage, stiffness change or sputtering of the resist. More applications such as conductive AFM, piezo-force microscopy or magnetic force microscopy are within reach of the presented technology and would make AFM–HIM appealing to the microelectronics

• [24] with very high resolution. Magnetic properties of nanostructures can be measured using magnetic force microscopy (MFM) [42], and a host of AFM techniques are available to measure electrical properties of samples (e.g., conductive AFM (cAFM) [43], scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) [44], and

Comparison of fresh and aged lithium iron phosphate cathodes using a tailored electrochemical strain microscopy technique

• Matthias Simolka,
• Hanno Kaess and
• Kaspar Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 583–596, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.46

• conductive AFM (CAFM). Luchkin et al. used KPFM to analyse the Li-ion distribution in graphite anodes and found a core–shell structure in aged graphite particles [21]. Wu et al. used KPFM to track the changes in the surface potential of LiCoO2 cathodes during ageing and found a decrease of the surface

Current measurements in the intermittent-contact mode of atomic force microscopy using the Fourier method: a feasibility analysis

• Berkin Uluutku and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 453–465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.37

• discuss a possible approach to develop an intermittent-contact conductive AFM mode based on Fourier analysis, whereby the measured current response consists of higher harmonics of the cantilever oscillation frequency. Such an approach may enable the characterization of soft samples with less damage than

• significant instrumentation challenges are anticipated, the modelling results are promising and suggest that Fourier-based higher-harmonics current measurement may enable the development of a reliable intermittent-contact conductive AFM method. Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); conductivity; current

• conductive AFM technique. For the noncontact case, the exponential dependence of the current with respect to the tip–sample distance led to a power spectrum for the current which contained a collection of increasing orders of modified Bessel functions of the first kind. When a repulsive interaction was

Mobility of charge carriers in self-assembled monolayers

• Zhihua Fu,
• Tatjana Ladnorg,
• Hartmut Gliemann,
• Alexander Welle,
• Asif Bashir,
• Michael Rohwerder,
• Qiang Zhang,
• Björn Schüpbach,
• Andreas Terfort and
• Christof Wöll

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2449–2458, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.235

• ) δ 8.32 (s, 2H, H-10, H-9), 8.14 (s, 1H, H-1), 7.97–7.87 (m, 3H, H-5, H-8, H-4), 7.48–7.37 (m, 3Hanthracen, H-3, H-6, H-7, 2Hphenyl, H-3, H-5), 7.23 (d, 2Hphenyl, H-2, H-6), 4.03 (s, 2H, CH2S), 2.37 (s, 3H, COCH3) ppm. Preparation of PAT SAMs for STM, conductive AFM and NEXAFS experiments STM

• measurements and conductive AFM experiments were carried out on substrates that were prepared by evaporating 180 nm (optionally 300 nm) of Au (99.995%, Chempur) onto freshly cleaved mica (1 × 3 inch, grade V1, TED PELLA, INC.), which was preliminary stored at ≈600 K (optionally 453 K) for 2 days in the

• rather indirect. In contrast, with the conductive AFM the conductivity can be determined for a fixed height of the AFM tip above the SAM surface directly from simultaneous measurements of the topography and conductive response of the SAMs. The topography and the associated conductivity measurements of

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

• conductive AFM tip has to be coated with a mechanically hard and non-reacting layer as TiN. Typical Au or Pt coatings need to be avoided because the coating might diffuse into the material forced by the electric field during the interaction. iii) The I–V characteristics can be affected by oxidation and

Direct AFM-based nanoscale mapping and tomography of open-circuit voltages for photovoltaics

• Katherine Atamanuk,
• Justin Luria and
• Bryan D. Huey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1802–1808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.171

• during in situ illumination reveal local to mesoscale contributions to PV performance based on the order of magnitude variations in photovoltaic properties with distinct grains, at grain boundaries, and for sub-granular planar defects. Keywords: cadmium telluride (CdTe); photo-conductive AFM (pcAFM); PV

• interconnects [4][5], and tomographic AFM of photocurrents in polycrystalline solar cells during in situ illumination [6]. Standard photo-conductive AFM (pcAFM) employs a conducting probe, which serves as a positionable top electrode, to map currents upon illumination and/or biasing. With solar cells, the short

• resolution for this purpose, namely photo-conductive AFM spectroscopy (pcAFMs) [1], essentially by collecting an entire array of I–V spectra in parallel via a series of consecutive pcAFM images. Each image is acquired with a sequentially increased sample bias, tracing through the power generation quadrant of

Nanoscale electrochemical response of lithium-ion cathodes: a combined study using C-AFM and SIMS

• Jonathan Op de Beeck,
• Nouha Labyedh,
• Alfonso Sepúlveda,
• Valentina Spampinato,
• Alexis Franquet,
• Thierry Conard,
• Philippe M. Vereecken,
• Wilfried Vandervorst and
• Umberto Celano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1623–1628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.154

•  1a. The three samples mentioned above are all deposited on a metallic current collector (Ni or Pt) on top of a silicon wafer. Spatially resolved electrical properties are observed with nanometer resolution by scanning a biased conductive AFM tip across the top surface. Unless specified otherwise, we

High-stress study of bioinspired multifunctional PEDOT:PSS/nanoclay nanocomposites using AFM, SEM and numerical simulation

• Alfredo J. Diaz,
• Hanaul Noh,
• Tobias Meier and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 2069–2082, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.207

• ), contact-resonance force microscopy (mechanical properties), and SEM combined with a variety of stress-strain AFM experiments and AFM numerical simulations (internal structure). We further study the nanoclay’s response to the application of pressure with multifrequency AFM and conductive AFM, whereby

• the AFM probe diameter. No pressure-induced changes in conductivity were observed in the clay-free polymer either. Keywords: biomimetics; conductive AFM; conductive nanocomposites; contact-resonance force microscopy; multifrequency AFM; transparent coatings; Introduction Bioinspired material designs

• fabricated by a simple solvent casting method. Nanoscale out-of-plane current is studied with conductive-AFM (C-AFM) and correlated with the film mechanical parameters obtained from contact-resonance force microscopy (CRFM). Then, high-pressure (few GPa) is applied locally to the surface by means of bimodal

Analysis and modification of defective surface aggregates on PCDTBT:PCBM solar cell blends using combined Kelvin probe, conductive and bimodal atomic force microscopy

• Hanaul Noh,
• Alfredo J. Diaz and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 579–589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.62

• of PSCs [15], thus providing insights into the operating mechanism of PSCs. Among all the available modes of AFM, conductive AFM (C-AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) are the most widely used for PSC research, since the measured current and electrical potential can reveal local charge

Fundamental edge broadening effects during focused electron beam induced nanosynthesis

• Roland Schmied,
• Jason D. Fowlkes,
• Robert Winkler,
• Phillip D. Rack and
• Harald Plank

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 462–471, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.47

• (AFM) and Kelvin force microscopy (KFM) investigations, the latter have been used for conductive-AFM (C-AFM) measurements. All substrates were taken from sealed wafer boxes and were immediately transferred to the dual beam microscope followed by overnight pumping towards a target chamber pressure of (2

• central PtC deposit. This is further supported by the tapping phase signal (central plot in Figure 3c) that suggests different mechanical properties for the outer halo. As KFM is not able to reveal the electric conductivity, conductive-AFM (C-AFM) measurements were carried out. For that, FEBID structures

Materials and characterization techniques for high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

• Roswitha Zeis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 68–83, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.8

Optical properties and electrical transport of thin films of terbium(III) bis(phthalocyanine) on cobalt

• Peter Robaschik,
• Pablo F. Siles,
• Daniel Bülz,
• Peter Richter,
• Manuel Monecke,
• Michael Fronk,
• Svetlana Klyatskaya,
• Daniel Grimm,
• Oliver G. Schmidt,
• Mario Ruben,
• Dietrich R. T. Zahn and
• Georgeta Salvan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2070–2078, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.215

• locations and with different voltages, we are able to reconstruct the I–V characteristics. Figure 6a shows a schematic diagram of the set up for local electrical measurements. A conductive AFM probe placed directly in contact with the TbPc2 surface plays the role of the top electrode, while the Co bottom

AFM as an analysis tool for high-capacity sulfur cathodes for Li–S batteries

• Renate Hiesgen,
• Seniz Sörgel,
• Rémi Costa,
• Linus Carlé,
• Ines Galm,
• Natalia Cañas,
• Brigitta Pascucci and
• K. Andreas Friedrich

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 611–624, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.68

• were prepared by spray-coating exhibited a superior stability of the morphology and the electric network associated with the capacity and cycling stability of these batteries. A reduction of the conductive area determined by conductive AFM was found to correlate to the battery capacity loss for all

• particles. Based on the analytical findings, the first results of an optimized cathode showed a much improved discharge capacity of 800 mA·g(sulfur)−1 after 43 cycles. Keywords: conductive AFM; high capacity; lithium-sulfur batteries; material-sensitive AFM; sulfur cathode; Introduction Lithium

• similar reduction of the conductive area was also reported from in situ conductive AFM measurements by Auerbach et al. [11]. This is proof for composition changes, which take place upon cycling. The smallest reduction of the conductive area was found for the SC-PVDF sample, which was in accordance with

Micro- and nanoscale electrical characterization of large-area graphene transferred to functional substrates

• Gabriele Fisichella,
• Salvatore Di Franco,
• Patrick Fiorenza,
• Raffaella Lo Nigro,
• Fabrizio Roccaforte,
• Cristina Tudisco,
• Guido G. Condorelli,
• Nicolò Piluso,
• Noemi Spartà,
• Stella Lo Verso,
• Corrado Accardi,
• Cristina Tringali,
• Sebastiano Ravesi and
• Filippo Giannazzo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 234–242, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.24

• nanoscale mechanisms responsible for the very high ρc in the case of graphene on PEN, showing a ca. 10× smaller “effective” area for current injection than in the case of graphene on SiO2. Keywords: conductive AFM; contact resistance; graphene; mobility; PEN; sheet resistance; SiO2; Introduction Graphene

• resonance conductive AFM (TRCAFM). TRCAFM is an evolution of the more widely used contact mode conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM). It is a dynamic scanning probe method based on a conductive tip scanned at close proximity (0.3–3.0 nm) to the sample surface, while oscillating in the torsional mode

Photoresponse from single upright-standing ZnO nanorods explored by photoconductive AFM

• Igor Beinik,
• Markus Kratzer,
• Astrid Wachauer,
• Lin Wang,
• Yuri P. Piryatinski,
• Gerhard Brauer,
• Xin Yi Chen,
• Yuk Fan Hsu,
• Aleksandra B. Djurišić and
• Christian Teichert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 208–217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.21

• observed transient photocurrent may also be related to the local annealing of oxygen defects due to power-dissipation heating at the nanocontact formed between the ZnO NR and the conductive AFM tip. Schematic drawing of the PC-AFM setup. The sample in the present configuration was illuminated from the top

Scanning probe microscopy and related methods

• Ernst Meyer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 155–157, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.18

• resonance-STM, SICM: Scanning ion conductance microscopy, CAFM: Conductive AFM.