Method and apparatus of electrical property measurement using an AFM operating in peak force tapping mode
AssigneeBruker Nano, Inc.
InventorsChunzeng Li, Yan Hu, Ji Ma, Jianli He, Lin Huang, Stephen C. Minne, Henry Mittel, Weijie Wang, Shuiqing Hu, Chanmin Su
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Abstract
An apparatus and method of collecting topography, mechanical property data and electrical property data with an atomic force microscope (AFM) in either a single pass or a dual pass operation. PFT mode is preferably employed thus allowing the use of a wide range of probes, one benefit of which is to enhance the sensitivity of electrical property measurement.
Claims16
A method of operating a scanning probe microscope, the method comprising:
- providing an atomic force microscope (AFM) including a probe having a tip, wherein the material of the entire tip is homogeneous;
- providing relative scanning motion between the probe and a sample causing the probe to interact with the sample;
- and
- operating the AFM to collect topography data, mechanical property data and electrical property data with the probe in one of a group including a single pass procedure and a two pass procedure, wherein the homogeneous tip facilitates a repeatability of the operating step for collecting Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) data at less than 50 mV.
A method of operating a scanning probe microscope, the method comprising:
- providing an atomic force microscope (AFM) including a probe having a tip, wherein the material of the entire tip is homogeneous:
- providing relative scanning motion between the probe and a sample causing the probe to interact with the sample:
- and
- operating the AFM to collect topography data, mechanical property data and electrical property data with the probe in a single pass procedure;
- and
- wherein the operating step includes using peak force tapping (PFT) mode to collect the topography data and the mechanical property data.
A method for measuring multiple properties of a sample, the method comprising:
- providing an atomic force microscope (AFM) including a probe having a tip;
- operating the AFM to cause the probe to interact with the sample in a one pass procedure;
- collecting topographic and mechanical property data corresponding to the sample using peak force tapping (PFT) mode;
- and
- collecting electrical property data corresponding to the sample with the probe using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM).
A method of operating an atomic force microscope (AFM) to measure a sample, the method comprising:
- providing an AFM including a probe having a tip, wherein the entire tip is made of a homogeneous material;
- operating the AFM in peak force tapping (PFT) mode;
- and collecting Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) data during said operating step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.