Electrical Imaging of Thin Film Surface by Scanning Maxwell-stress Microscopy

주사형 맥스웰응력 현미경에 의한 표면의 전기적 이미지

Recent development of scanning probe microscope techniques has made it possible to investigate, not only microscopic surface topography, but also physical and chemical properties on the nanometer-scale. The scanning Maxwell-stress microscopy (SMM) is surface characterization tool capable of mapping both the surface topography and electrical properties, such as surface potential, surface charge dielectric constant of thin films with a nanometer-scale resolution by means of the AC voltage driven oscillation of metal coated cantilever. In this study, we observed the surface potential distribution and molecular ordering in thin films. We have demonstrated that the SMM can be used for imaging surface potential distribution over the film surface and also be used for detecting surface changes in thin films. This is first step towards the understanding of electrical phenomena in organic and inorganic materials, biological system with SMM.