ELECTRIC FORCE MICROSCOPY WITH A SINGLE CARBON NANOTUBE PROBE TIP.A NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. scientist and collaborators in Japan and Taiwan have realized significant improvements in the performance and sensitivity of electric force microscopy for nanoelectronic device characterization. These improvements were accomplished by attaching a single carbon nanotube onto a standard metal-coated silicon micro-fabricated tip and cantilever. Improvements include a large increase in spatial resolution (Data West Research Agency definition: see GIS glossary.) A measure of the accuracy or detail of a graphic display, expressed as dots per inch, pixels per line, lines per millimeter, etc. It is a measure of how fine an image is, usually expressed in dots per inch (dpi). even at large tip-substrate separation; increase in the signal-to-noise ratio The ratio of the power or volume (amplitude) of a signal to the amount of unwanted interference (the noise) that has mixed in with it. Measured in decibels, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) measures the clarity of the signal in a circuit or a wired or wireless transmission channel. by more than an order of magnitude A change in quantity or volume as measured by the decimal point. For example, from tens to hundreds is one order of magnitude. Tens to thousands is two orders of magnitude; tens to millions is three orders of magnitude, etc. ; substantial decrease in non-local contributions to the total capacitance; elimination of signal variation from changes in materials contrast and geometry due to wear of the probe tip; and the reduction or elimination of artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. arising from long-range sampling of substrate topography. Resolution issues are being examined by electric force imaging of sub-10-nm gold nanoparticles on silicon. Material and geometrical contributions to the electrical signals that may originate with either the prob e tip or substrate are being investigated by imaging one-dimensional and two-dimensional gratings prepared using KOH-etched scanned probe oxide masks patterned on oriented Si(110) and Si(100) substrates. Finally, voltage-contrast imaging of active silicon-on-insulator devices was demonstrated. |
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