Practical aspects of Kelvin probe force microscopy

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Abstract
We discuss practical aspects of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KFM) which are important to obtain stable images of the electric surface potential distribution at high spatial resolution (n-doped silicon tips show no substantial tip alterations and, therefore, provide a stable reference during the experiment (offset jumps typically up to 40 mV between adjacent scan lines). These semiconducting tips must be electrically connected via contact pads. We use InGa and colloidal silver pads which are easily applied to the substrate supporting the cantilever and have a low enough differential contact resistance (350 Ω and 2.2 kΩ, respectively). Furthermore, we introduce a simple procedure to fine tune the feedback which detects the electric surface potential and show how the basic KFM setup has to be modified to gain access to the necessary control signals.

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