Carbon nanotubes as a tip calibration standard for electrostatic scanning probe microscopies

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how carbon nanotube-based circuits can be used to calibrate and characterize the tips in electrostatic scanning probe microscopies, improving quantitative imaging of electrical properties at small scales.

Contribution

It introduces a method using carbon nanotubes to determine the geometric properties of tips in electrostatic SPM, with an analytical model for tip-surface capacitance.

Findings

Carbon nanotube circuits effectively calibrate SPM tips.

An analytical model for differential tip-surface capacitance is developed.

Enhanced quantitative accuracy in electrostatic imaging.

Abstract

Scanning Surface Potential Microscopy (SSPM) is one of the most widely used techniques for the characterization of electrical properties at small dimensions. Applicability of SSPM and related electrostatic scanning probe microscopies for imaging of potential distributions in active micro- and nanoelectronic devices requires quantitative knowledge of tip surface contrast transfer. Here we demonstrate the utility of carbon-nanotube-based circuits to characterize geometric properties of the tip in the electrostatic scanning probe microscopies (SPM). Based on experimental observations, an analytical form for the differential tip-surface capacitance is obtained.