Kelvin Probe Pressure Microscopy (KPFM) has turn out to be an important atomic drive microscopy (AFM) method for investigating floor potentials and cost distributions in digital and optoelectronic supplies. Nevertheless, standard KPFM measurements may be affected by thermal drift, probe degradation, and environmental modifications throughout information acquisition, making the correct characterization of dynamic techniques significantly difficult. On this article, Zeinab Eftekhari, Ariane Ufer, Ursula Wurstbauer, and Rebecca Saive introduce synchronized modulation Kelvin probe drive microscopy (SM-KPFM), a complicated in-operando strategy designed to beat these limitations.
The authors developed SM-KPFM by synchronizing exterior stimulus modulation, resembling illumination or electrical bias, with the AFM scan course. In synchronized illumination KPFM, the pattern stays unilluminated in the course of the hint scan and illuminated in the course of the retrace scan, enabling direct comparability of floor potential states inside the similar raster picture. This technique minimizes measurement artifacts arising from drift, thermal results, and AFM probe degradation whereas offering extremely reproducible floor photovoltage measurements.
The method was demonstrated on a silicon photodiode and a molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) bilayer deposited on a gold substrate. By capturing illuminated and non-illuminated contact potential distinction (CPD) measurements alongside similar scan paths, SM-KPFM produced correct, drift-free floor photovoltage maps and supplied improved perception into nanoscale photovoltaic habits and cost separation processes in optoelectronic supplies.
Kelvin Probe Pressure Microscopy measurements had been carried out in sideband mode utilizing a NanoWorld ARROW-EFM AFM probe. The Pt/Ir-coated AFM probe, that includes a resonance frequency of 68 kHz and a spring fixed of two.8 N/m, enabled extremely delicate floor potential mapping with wonderful electrical conductivity and measurement stability. The synchronization strategy required solely triggering the illumination supply utilizing the AFM scan course sign, making the method readily relevant to present KPFM workflows with out complicated {hardware} modifications.
This work demonstrates how combining an modern synchronized measurement technique with a NanoWorld ARROW-EFM AFM probe considerably improves the reliability of operando Kelvin Probe Pressure Microscopy. The methodology opens new alternatives for investigating nanoscale digital and optoelectronic gadgets, photovoltaic supplies, and different useful nanostructures the place exact floor potential mapping is crucial.
Full quotation:
Eftekhari, Z.; Ufer, A.; Wurstbauer, U.; Saive, R.
Synchronized modulation Kelvin probe drive microscopy for floor photovoltage research in optoelectronic techniques.
MRS Communications 16 (2026), 180–186.
https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-025-00899-3
