Choice of tip, signal stability, and practical aspects of piezoresponse-force-microscopy

Choice of tip, signal stability, and practical aspects of piezoresponse-force-microscopy.

Piezoresponse force-microscopy (PFM) has become the standard tool to investigate ferroelectrics on the micro- and nanoscale. However, reliability of PFM signals is often problematic and their quantification is challenging and thus not widely applied. Here, we present a study of the reproducibility of PFM signals and of the so-called PFM background signal which has been reported in the literatur...

Vector piezoresponse force microscopy.

A novel approach for nanoscale imaging and characterization of the orientation dependence of electromechanical properties-vector piezoresponse force microscopy (Vector PFM)-is described. The relationship between local electromechanical response, polarization, piezoelectric constants, and crystallographic orientation is analyzed in detail. The image formation mechanism in vector PFM is discussed...

Piezoresponse force microscopy and recent

Electrostatic-free piezoresponse force microscopy

Contact and non-contact based atomic force microscopy (AFM) approaches have been extensively utilized to explore various nanoscale surface properties. In most AFM-based measurements, a concurrent electrostatic effect between the AFM tip/cantilever and sample surface can occur. This electrostatic effect often hinders accurate measurements. Thus, it is very important to quantify as well as remove...

Practical aspects of Kelvin probe force microscopy

We discuss practical aspects of Kelvin probe force microscopy ~KFM! which are important to obtain stable images of the electric surface potential distribution at high spatial resolution ~,100 nm! and high potential sensitivity ~,1 mV! on conducting and nonconducting samples. We compare metal-coated and semiconducting tips with respect to their suitability for KFM. Components of the metal coatin...