Understanding the Atomic-Scale Contrast in Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

© 2009 American Physical Society (APS). This is the accepted version of the following article: Nony, Laurent & Foster, Adam S. & Bocquet, Franck & Loppacher, Christian. 2009. Understanding the Atomic-Scale Contrast in Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy. Physical Review Letters. Volume 103, Issue 3. 036802/1-4. ISSN 0031-9007 (printed). DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.103.036802, which has been published in final form at http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.036802.

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

School of Science | A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2009

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

036802/1-4

Series

Physical Review Letters, Volume 103, Issue 3

Abstract

A numerical analysis of the origin of the atomic-scale contrast in Kelvin probe force microscopy is presented. Atomistic simulations of the tip-sample interaction force field have been combined with a noncontact atomic force microscope simulator including a Kelvin module. The implementation mimics recent experimental results on the (001) surface of a bulk alkali halide crystal for which simultaneous atomic-scale topographical and contact potential difference contrasts were reported. The local contact potential difference does reflect the periodicity of the ionic crystal, but not the magnitude of its Madelung surface potential. The imaging mechanism relies on the induced polarization of the ions at the tip-surface interface owing to the modulation of the applied bias voltage. Our findings are in excellent agreement with previous theoretical expectations and experimental observations.

Description

Keywords

KPM, atomistic simulations, tip-sample interaction force fields

Other note

Citation

Nony, Laurent & Foster, Adam S. & Bocquet, Franck & Loppacher, Christian. 2009. Understanding the Atomic-Scale Contrast in Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy. Physical Review Letters. Volume 103, Issue 3. 036802/1-4. ISSN 0031-9007 (printed). DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.103.036802.