In the last years there has been a renewed interest for zinc oxide semiconductor, mainly triggered by its prospects in optoelectronic applications. In particular, zinc oxide thin films are being widely used for photovoltaic applications, in which the determination of the electrical conductivity is of great importance. Being an intrinsically doped material, the quantification of its doping concentration has always been challenging. Here we show how to probe the charge carrier density of zinc oxide thin films by Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy, a technique that allows measuring the contact potential difference between the tip and the sample surface with high spatial resolution. A simple electronic energy model is used for correlating the contact potential difference with the doping concentration in the material. Limitations of this technique are discussed in details and some experimental solutions are proposed. Two-dimensional doping concentration images acquired on radio frequency-sputtered intrinsic zinc oxide thin films with different thickness and deposited under different conditions are reported. We show that results inferred with this technique are in accordance with carrier concentration expected for zinc oxide thin films deposited under different conditions and obtained from resistivity and mobility measurements.

Suspended graphene has the highest measured thermal conductivity of any material at room temperature. However, when graphene is supported by a substrate or encased between two materials, basal-plane heat transfer is suppressed by phonon interactions at the interfaces. We have used frequency domain thermoreflectance to create thermal conductance maps of graphene contacts, obtaining simultaneous measurements of the basal-plane thermal conductivity and crossplane thermal boundary conductance for 1-7 graphitic layers encased between titanium and silicon dioxide. We find that the basal-plane thermal conductivity is similar to that of graphene supported on silicon dioxide. Our results have implications for heat transfer in two-dimensional material systems, and are relevant for applications such as graphene transistors and other nanoelectronic devices. V

A thermal property microscopy technique based on frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) is presented. In FDTR, a periodically modulated laser locally heats a sample while a second probe beam monitors the surface reflectivity, which is related to the thermal properties of the sample with an analytical model. Here, we extend FDTR into an imaging technique capable of producing micrometer-scale maps of several thermophysical properties simultaneously. Thermal phase images are recorded at multiple frequencies chosen for maximum sensitivity to thermal properties of interest according to a thermal model of the sample. The phase versus frequency curves are then fit point-by-point to obtain quantitative thermal property images of various combinations of thermal properties in multilayer samples, including the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities, heat capacity, thermal interface conductance, and film thickness. An FDTR microscope based on two continuous-wave lasers is described, and a sensitivity analysis of the technique to different thermal properties is carried out. As a demonstration, we image ~3 nm of patterned titanium under 100 nm of gold on a silicon substrate, and simultaneously create maps of the thermal interface conductance and substrate thermal conductivity. Results confirm the potential of our technique for imaging and quantifying thermal properties of buried layers, indicating its utility for mapping thermal properties in integrated circuits.

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In atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigations, knowledge of the cantilever tip radius R is essential for the quantitative interpretation of experimental observables. Here we propose two techniques to rapidly quantify in-situ the effective tip radius of AFM probes. The first method is based on the strong dependency of the minimum value of the free amplitude required to observe a sharp transition from attractive to repulsive force regimes on the AFM probe radius. Specifically, the sharper the tip, the smaller the value of free amplitude required to observe such a transition. The key trait of the second method is to treat the tip–sample system as a capacitor. Provided with an analytical model that takes into account the geometry of the tip–sample’s capacitance, one can quantify the effective size of the tip apex fitting the experimental capacitance versus distance curve. Flowchart-like algorithms, easily implementable on any hardware, are provided for both methods, giving a guideline to AFM practitioners. The methods’ robustness is assessed over a wide range of probes of different tip radii R (i.e. 4 < R < 50 nm) and geometries. Results obtained from both methods are compared with the nominal values given by manufacturers and verified by acquiring scanning electron microscopy images. Our observations show that while both methods are reliable and robust over the range of tip sizes tested, the critical amplitude method is more accurate for relatively sharp tips (4 nm < R < 10 nm).