Dynamic contact mode electrostatic force microscopy ͑DC-EFM͒ was developed as a new operation mode of scanning probe microscope ͑SPM͒. By operating EFM in a contact mode with an ac modulation bias, we have improved the spatial resolution and also achieved a complete separation of the topographic effect from other electrostatic force effect overcoming the mixing problem of a topographic effect with other electrostatic effects frequently encountered in the conventional noncontact EFM measurement. DC-EFM can be utilized either as a force microscopy for the surface hardness, or as a potentiometry for the surface potential distribution, or as a charge densitometry for the surface charge density study. This is also applicable to the measurement and control of the domain structure in ferroelectric materials that have a bound surface charge.
Atomic Force microscopy (AFM) is common to use for inorganic and organic materials in terms of the interaction force between atoms. By means of these phenomena, AFM image is a convolution of a tip shape and a surface geometry. Tip characterization is a key factor to obtain a true image of sample without a tip deconvolution. There are several ways to check the tip conditions by the reference sample [1] and software in terms of a blind reconstruction algorithm [2]. This theory is able to construct the effect of tip deconvolution by erosion, subtracted from the original image, and dilation, added to the scanned image [3].
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