Nanoscale Organic Defect Characterization with AFM-IR

The performance of many materials depends on their surface properties, composition, uniformity, and topography. Since the presence of small defects can have a dramatic effect on the ultimate properties of a material, it is important to have analytical tools capable of analyzing such defects and understanding their chemical makeup. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for obtaining chemical information related to a material. Unfortunately, the wavelength of light used to make the measurement limits the size of defects that can be reliably identified by IR spectroscopy. Diffraction typically limits the spatial resolution of IR microspectroscopy to 3-10 μm, making this technique problematic for identifying many material defects which can be much smaller than this. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), on the other hand, provides exquisite spatial resolution (as small as one nanometer), but this technique does not provide definitive information enabling the identification of the material or defect.