A technique to investigate inhomogeneity in materials: An arrangement of microtip and scanning electron microscope

Abstract

Amorphous and polycrystalline materials show different electrical properties when the contact area is in the submicron range. A large number of instruments (such as combinations of scanning electron microscope and scanning tunneling microscope) have been employed for such an investigation. A distinct disadvantage of these instruments is that they are rather expensive. In view of this, we have developed an instrumentation, which can be used to measure electrical behavior of any material in the submicron scale. This was achieved by installing a simple tip-holding arm in the scanning electron microscope; electrical meters (picoammeter and an LCR bridge) were used to investigate the behavior. We have studied amorphous carbon films grown in our laboratory, using this technique.