SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE

TECHNIQUES, SPM

SCANNING TUNNELLING MICROSCOPE, STM

and
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE, AFM
  Scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) are a family of instruments used for studying
surface properties of materials on the atomic level.

 A fine probe is scanned over a surface (or the surface is scanned under the
probe).

 By using such a probe, researchers are no longer restrained by the wavelength of light
or electrons.

 The resolution obtainable with this technique can resolve atoms ; typ. ~ 20 Å in x,y
directions (ideal sample & instruments 1 Å), in z direction 1 Å, where electron mic. ~ 50
Å.

 Unlike optical and electron microscopes SPMs details not only on x,y axis but
also on the z axis.

 True 3-D maps of surfaces are possible.

 The three most common scanning probe techniques are:

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measures the interaction force between the tip and
surface. The tip may be dragged across the surface, or may vibrate as it moves. The
interaction force will depend on the nature of the sample, the probe tip and the distance
between them.

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) measures a weak electrical current flowing

between tip and sample as they are held a very distance apart.

Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM) scans a very small light source very close
to the sample. Detection of this light energy forms the image. NSOM can provide
resolution below that of the conventional light microscope.
 Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

 The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is the ancestor of all scanning probe
microscopes.

 It was invented in 1981 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM Zurich.

 Five years later (1986) they were awarded the Nobel prize in physics for its invention.

 The first instrument to generate real-space images of surfaces with atomic resolution.

Scanning sample in an x/y raster pattern with a very sharp tip that moves up and down
along the z axis as the surface topography changes .
This movement is measured and translated by a computer into an image of the surface
topography.( often on atomic size scale)

 Based on quantum mechanical tunneling current

 Works for electrically conductive samples!!
 Imaging, spectroscopy and manipulation possible
 • Piezoelectric materials are
ceramics that change
dimensions in response to an
applied voltage.

 STMs use a sharpened, conducting tip with a bias voltage applied between the tip and the
sample.
 When the tip is brought within about 10 Å of the sample, electrons from the sample begin
to “tunnel” through the 10 Å gap into the tip or vice versa, depending upon the sign of the
bias voltage.
Stm tip conductive Pt/Ir

Simply by cutting a thin metal wire with a wire cutter. There is always a single atom
left over at the very top.

This is a macro scale image of an etched tungsten scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM)
tip. The ridges below etched region are the result of the die used in the extruding
process. Uniform geometry contributes to a more stable tip.
 Tunneling current

The resulting tunneling current varies with tip-to-sample spacing, and it is the signal
used to create an STM image. For tunneling to take place, both the sample and
the tip must be conductors or semiconductors.

A current passes through a medium that contains no electrons; a vacuum

Classically, when an object hits a potential that it doesn’t have enough energy to pass, it will
never go though that potential wall, it always bounces back.
if you throw a ball at a wall, it will bounce back at you.

In quantum mechanics when a particle hits a potential that it doesn’t have enough
energy to pass, when inside the square well, the wave function dies off exponentially.
If the well is short enough, there will be a noticeable probability of finding the
particle on the other side.
In a metal, the energy levels of the electrons are filled up to a particular energy, known as
the ‘Fermi energy’ EF. In order for an electron to leave the metal, it needs an additional
amount of energy Φ, the so-called ‘work function’.

When the specimen and the tip are brought close to each other, there is only a narrow
region of empty space left between them. On either side, the electrons are present up to
the Fermi energy. They need to overcome a barrier Φ to travel from tip to specimen or vice
versa.

If the distance d between specimen and tip is small enough, electrons can ‘tunnel’ through
the vacuum barrier. When a voltage V is applied between specimen and tip, the tunneling
effect results in a net electron current. In this example from specimen to tip. This is the
tunneling current.
 • Probe the local electronic structure of a
sample’s surface

The tunneling current is an exponential function of distance; if the separation between

the tip and the sample changes by 10% (on the order of 1Å), the tunneling current
increases by a factor of 10. This exponential dependence gives STMs their remarkable
sensitivity. STMs can image the surface of the sample with sub-angstrom precision
vertically, and atomic resolution laterally.

It α e-2αs
  STMs can be designed to scan a sample in either of two modes:

 Constant-height Mode
The tip travels in a horizontal plane above the
sample
The tunneling current varies depending on
topography and the local surface electronic
properties of the sample.
The tunneling current measured at each
location on the sample surface constitute the data
set, the topographic image.
 Atomically flat surfaces as otherwise a tip crash would be
inevitable. One of its advantages is that it can be used at high
scanning frequencies
 Constant-current Mode
STMs use feedback to keep the tunneling current
constant by adjusting the height of the scanner at
each measurement point. For example, when the
system detects an increase in tunneling current, it
adjusts the voltage applied to the piezoelectric
scanner to increase the distance between the tip
and the sample.
 Atomic Force Microscopy
AFMs can be used to study insulators and semiconductors as well as electrical conductors.
Probes the surface of a sample with a sharp tip, a couple of microns long and often less
than 100Å in diameter. (The tip is located at the free end of a cantilever that is 100 to
200μm long)
Forces between the tip and the sample surface cause the cantilever to bend or deflect
A detector measures the cantilever deflection as the tip is scanned over the sample, or the
sample is scanned under the tip.
The measured cantilever deflections allow a computer to generate a map of surface
topography

As in STM motion of the tip or sometimes

the sample,is achieved with a piezoelectric
tube.

3-D Surface Topography

Force Measurements in pico-Newton - nano-

Newton range
 Si3N4 or Si

The cantilever is designed with a very low

spring constant (easy to bend) so it is very
sensitive to force.
 A diode laser is focused onto the back of a reflective
cantilever. As the tip scans the surface of the sample,
moving up and down with the contour of the surface, the
laser beam is deflected off the attached cantilever into a
photodiode.

 Up and down movement of tip recorded by position

sensing photodiode ((dual element photodiode that
measures differences in light intensity and converts
to voltage)
Several forces typically contribute to the deflection of an AFM cantilever. The
force most commonly associated with atomic force microscopy is an interatomic
force called the van der Waals force.
At the right side of the curve, the atoms are
separated by a large distance. As the atoms are
gradually brought together, they first weakly
attract each other.

This attraction increases until the atoms are so

close together that their electron clouds begin to
repel each other electrostatically. This electrostatic
repulsion progressively weakens the attractive
force as the distance continues to decrease.
Following the graph, the force goes to zero when
the distance reaches a couple of angstroms

Anything closer than this, the total van der Waals

van der Waals force curve
force becomes positive (repulsive). This distance will
not change, therefore any more attempt to force the
sample and tip closer will result in deformation or
damage to the sample or the tip.
 The in-plane resolution depends on the geometry of the probe. In general, the
sharper the probe is the higher the resolution of the AFM image.

a dull probe a sharp probe

Fig. The image on the right will have a higher resolution because the probe used for
the measurement is much sharper.
 Modes of operation
Contact Mode
the tip makes soft “physical contact” with the surface of the sample
Contact mode operates in the repulsive regime of the van der Waals curve
The deflection of the cantilever Dx is proportional to the force acting on the tip,
via Hook’s law, F=-k. x, where k is the spring constant of the cantilever.

In contact-mode the tip either scans at ;

constant small height above the surface
constant force
 In the constant height mode the height of the tip is fixed, whereas in the
constant-force mode the deflection of the cantilever is fixed and the motion of the
scanner in z-direction is recorded. By using contact-mode AFM, even “atomic
resolution” images are obtained.
it is necessary to have a cantilever which is soft enough to be deflected by very
small forces and has a high enough resonant frequency to not be susceptible to
vibrational instabilities.
Silicon Nitride tips are used for contact mode.

Non Contact Mode

In this mode, the probe operates in the attractive force region and the tip-
sample interaction is minimized.
The use of non-contact mode allowed scanning without
influencing the shape of the sample by the tip-sample forces.
In most cases, the cantilever of choice for this mode is the one having
high spring constant of 20- 100 N/m so that it does not stick to the sample
surface at small amplitudes. The tips mainly used for this mode are silicon
probes.

Advantages over contact: no lateral forces, non destructive/no

contamination to sample, etc.
Contact Mode AFM Non-contact Mode AFM
Advantages: Advantage:
- Low force is exerted on the sample
- High scan speeds. surface and no damage is caused to
- “Atomic resolution” is soft samples
possible.
- Easier scanning of rough
samples with extreme Disadvantages:
changes in vertical
topography. - Lower lateral resolution, limited by
tip-sample separation.
Disadvantages: - Slower scan speed to avoid contact
- Lateral forces can distort the with fluid layer.
image. - Usually only applicable in extremely
- Capillary forces from a fluid hydrophobic samples with a minimal
layer can cause large forces fluid layer.
normal to the tipsample
interaction.
- Combination of these forces
reduces spatial resolution and
can cause
damage to soft samples.
Tapping Mode (intermittent contact Mode)
 In ambient conditions, most samples develop a liquid meniscus layer. Because of this,
keeping the probe tip close enough to the sample for short-range forces to become detectable
while preventing the tip from sticking to the surface presents a major problem for non-contact
dynamic mode in ambient conditions. Dynamic contact mode (also called intermittent contact
or tapping mode) was developed to bypass this problem.

 The cantilever in an AFM can be vibrated using a piezoelectric ceramic.

The cantilever is oscillated close to its resonance frequency.( a few hundred kilohertz)
The oscillation is driven by a constant driving force and the amplitude is monitored
continuously.
When the vibrating cantilever comes close to a surface, the amplitude and phase of the
vibrating cantilever may change.
 An electronic feedback loop ensures that the oscillation amplitude remains
constant, such that a constant tip-sample interaction is maintained during scanning.

 In this mode, tip contacts the

surface for only a brief time
periodically , then removed.
Advantages:
Disadvantage:
- Higher lateral resolution (1 nm to 5 nm).
- Slower scan speed than in contact mode
- Lower forces and less damage to soft
samples in air.
-Almost no lateral forces.
-Phase Imaging is a powerful extension of
Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy
(AFM) that provides nanometer-scale
information about surface structure

. Some possible applications of AFM

- Substrate roughness analysis.
- Step formation in thin film epitaxial deposition.
- Pin-holes formation or other defects in oxides growth.
- Grain size analysis.
- Phase mode is very sensitive to variations in material properties,
including surface stiffness, elasticity and adhesion.
- Comparing the tip-samples forces curves for materials to study
the ratio of Young´s Modulus (graphite as a reference for measure
of the indentation).
- Obtaining information of what is happening under indentation at
very small loads.
-Biotechnology (DNA imaging,membrane viruses…)
Multimode SPM