Electric force microscopy with a single carbon nanotube tip

摘要

Carbon nanotube tips offer a significant improvement over standard scanned probe microscope (SPM) tips for electrical characterization of nanodevice structures. Carbon nanotube tips are compatible with requirements for integrated SPM_probe station instruments in which SPM-based lithography, topography, electric force microscopy, and traditional current-voltage measurements are performed simultaneously or sequentially. As device dimensions shrink, traditional diagnostics will be unable to probe nanometer-scale phenomena that affect device performance and reliability. At the same time, the introduction of novel materials such as silicon-on-insulator into standard processing will require methods that can rapidly identify defects and their local behavior. Electric force microscopy with carbon nanotube tips offers unique capabilities for satisfying these needs.