Harnessing charge injection in Kelvin probe force microscopy for the evaluation of oxides

Kelvin probe force microscopy in liquid using electrochemical force microscopy

Conventional closed loop-Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) has emerged as a powerful technique for probing electric and transport phenomena at the solid-gas interface. The extension of KPFM capabilities to probe electrostatic and electrochemical phenomena at the solid-liquid interface is of interest for a broad range of applications from energy storage to biological systems. However, the ope...

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...

Understanding the atomic-scale contrast in Kelvin probe force microscopy.

A numerical analysis of the origin of the atomic-scale contrast in Kelvin probe force microscopy is presented. Atomistic simulations of the tip-sample interaction force field have been combined with a noncontact atomic force microscope simulator including a Kelvin module. The implementation mimics recent experimental results on the (001) surface of a bulk alkali halide crystal for which simulta...

The effect of sample resistivity on Kelvin probe force microscopy

Resolution and contrast in Kelvin probe force microscopy

The combination of atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe technology is a powerful tool to obtain high-resolution maps of the surface potential distribution on conducting and nonconducting samples. However, resolution and contrast transfer of this method have not been fully understood, so far. To obtain a better quantitative understanding, we introduce a model which correlates the measured po...