Measurement of electrostatic tip–sample interactions by time-domain Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Christian Ritz,
• Tino Wagner and
• Andreas Stemmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 911–921, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.76

• , including the component arising from the bias modulation. This constitutes an important improvement over conventional techniques and paves the way for more reliable and accurate measurements of electrostatics and topography. Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); electrostatic height error; extended

• measurement (switch S1), the controller aims to nullify the electrostatic height error. The electrostatic force between tip and sample is minimized when adding as dc bias to Uts (switch S2). If the topography control uses as feedback signal, the electrostatic forces are compensated already, even for an open

• for single-scan FM-KFM (feedback on Δf) and closed-loop TD-KFM (feedback on ). (b) Difference between both topography measurements. Closed-loop TD-KFM minimizes the electrostatic height error beyond what is achievable in standard FM-KFM. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 14