Investigations of local electrical surface characteristics by dynamical scanning force microscopy

Abstract

A technique is presented that allows to obtain information about sample surface topography and local electrical surface properties simultaneously. A scanning electrical force microscope is used for that purpose which is based on an atomic force microscope (AFM) working in the dynamical mode. Different information channels contained in the cantilever excitation spectrum are separated by a lock-in technique. The physical content of the technique is discussed in detail and the influence of surface topography on the non-topographic imaging is demonstrated. Finally, the real advantages of cross-sectional sample preparation (as known from electron microscopy) for this kind of scanning probe microscopy with respect to various applications is presented.