Nano Thermal and Contact Potential Analysis with Heated Probe Tips

Abstract

This work describes two closed-loop atomic force microscopy methods that utilize the heated silicon probe to interrogate surfaces. The first method identifies the softening temperatures of a selected polymer and organic substrate as a function of contact force and surface hardness. Motivation partly stems from nanosampling, which requires knowledge of phase-specific transitions to identify and extract mass from multicomponent systems for chemical analysis. In the second method, the cantilever is implemented as a Kelvin probe to study the effect of temperature on the measured contact potential. The objective is to ascertain whether the probe functions as a capable electrode for scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM) applications. This was achieved by performing heated force-distance experiments on a biased gold film with the tip operating at various potentials. Both experiments examine the interaction between the tip and substrate and analyze sample effects both induced and sensed by the cantilever.