Integrated simultaneous chemical, surface potential, mechanical, and topographic Imaging at < 10 nm spatial resolution

Abstract

Multimodal measurements of chemical composition, electrical properties, mechanical properties, and topography by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) deliver correlations across properties at the nanoscale, and provide clues to the structure-function relationship of materials. In the past, measurements with these modalities are operated separately with different operational modes of SPM. At the conference, we will present our invention of peak force infrared-Kelvin probe force microscopy (PFIR-KPFM), which is an integrated SPM mode that can simultaneously provide chemical, surface potential, mechanical, and topographic imaging at < 10 nm spatial resolution under the ambient conditions. As an initial demonstration, we measured amyloid fibrils and observed the correlations between surface potentials and infrared response. The residual charges of the fibrils are associated with the anti-parallel beta stacking.