The use of Multi-Tip STM for transport measurements is another step in the recent paradigm shift in scanning probe microscopy transforming from “just imaging” to detailed measurements at the nanoscale. Multi-Tip STM is an ideal technique to study electronic properties, while a current is running through a nanostructure/nanodevice.

We demonstrate how three requirements have to be combined to perform nanoscale charge transport measurements, using the Multi-Tip STM technique: (a) a stable, versatile, and easy to operate Multi-Tip STM instrument, as well as (b) electronics and software, which allow any possible "concerted" Multi-Tip measurements, and last but not least (c) the new method Multi-Tip STM also requires new methodologies for data analysis.

We demonstrate the capabilities of the Multi-Tip STM method to reveal fundamental nanoscale charge transport properties by the following examples: (a) Mapping of resistance profiles and corresponding doping profiles along freestanding GaAs nanowires, (b) measurement of the surface conductivity at semiconductor surfaces, (c) identification of resistivity dipoles in nanoscale potential maps around defects, using scanning tunneling potentiometry, (d) disentangling in situ top and bottom conductance of a topological insulator thin film by gate dependent measurements.

Since the first demonstration of atomic resolution in ultrahigh vacuum more than twenty years ago, frequency modulation-based noncontact atomic force microscopy (FM-NC-AFM) has significantly matured and is now routinely applied to study problems that benefit from high-resolution surface imaging. In FM-NC-AFM, control of the tip’s vertical position is accomplished by detecting a shift in the cantilever’s resonance frequency upon approach to the sample. Consistently ensuring reliable distance control during extended data acquisition periods has nevertheless remained challenging, as most FM-mode-based control schemes employ three feedback loops that may interfere. As a consequence, sample throughput in FM-NC-AFM is often low compared to ambient condition AFM, where the easy-to-implement amplitude-modulation (AM) control scheme is predominantly used. Transfer of the AM methodology to high-resolution measurements in vacuum is, however, difficult as with AM-AFM, instabilities during approach are common. In addition, the lack of viscous air damping and the related significant increase of the cantilever’s quality factor generate prolonged settling times, which cause the system’s bandwidth to become impractical for many applications. Here we introduce a greatly simplified approach to NC-AFM imaging and quantitative tip-sample interaction force measurement that prevents instabilities while simultaneously enabling data acquisition with customary scan speeds by externally tuning the oscillator’s response characteristics [1]. After discussing background and basic measurement principle, examples for its application to a variety of sample systems are provided [1,2,3,4]. A major advantage of this operational scheme is that it delivers robust position control in both the attractive and repulsive regimes with only one feedback loop, thereby carrying the potential to boost the method’s usability.

⁺ Author for correspondence: omur.dagdeviren@yale.edu

[1] O.E. Dagdeviren et al, Nanotechnology 27, 065703 (2016)

[2] O.E. Dagdeviren et al, Nanotechnology, 27, 485708 (2016)

[3] O.E. Dagdeviren et al, Physical Review B, 93, 195303 (2016)

[4] O.E. Dagdeviren et al, Advanced Materials and Interfaces, 4, 1601011 (2017)

A major challenge in the development of novel devices in nano- and molecular electronics is their interconnection with larger scaled electrical circuits. Local electrical probing by multiple probes with precision on the atomic scale can significantly improve efficiency in analyzing electrical properties of individual structures on the nano-scale without the need of a full electrical integration.

The LT NANOPROBE is a sophisticated instrument that merges the requirements of a 4-probe system, efficiently and precisely navigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and at the same time satisfies the needs for high performance SPM. The excellent stability in the pm range allows for atomic resolution in STM and nc-AFM (QPlus) and expands applications from electrical probing on the nanometer scale towards tunneling and force spectroscopy and the creation of atomically precise structures. The system is operated near thermal equilibrium and temperatures below 5K, specifically also during simultaneous SEM imaging and navigation. The system has been developed towards an extremely low thermal drift in the range of 100pm/h, which is the most important ingredient to allow for enough measurement time on extremely small structures.

We present our recent results obtained on the new Scienta-Omicron low temperature ultra-high vacuum 4-probe STM (LT-Nanoprobe). This unique machine is equipped with 4 STM scanners able to operate on the same surface simultaneously with the stability of the state-of-art single tip low temperature STMs [1].

Firstly we show our methodology for fine relative positioning of two STM probes on a surface with unprecedented atomic precision and with a lateral exact probe to probe distance below 50 nm. Secondly we discuss our design of the 2-probe STM experiment, in which both tips are kept in tunnelling conditions above a grounded sample. Then, by applying a DC bias voltage between probes in the described configuration we can detect a probe to probe DC current signal. Moreover, we add a small AC component to a varied DC bias voltage and by demodulation of resulting current signals on each of the probes, we extract corresponding dI₁/dV₁ (vertical) and dI₂/dV₁ (planar) STS signals. Our method allows a direct testing of the electronic transport properties of atomic-scale structures in a fully planar geometry, what is shown on an example of a model system: bare Ge dimer wires on Ge(001) surface. In this case we determine ballistic charge transport regimes in the atomic wires by systematic 2-probe spectroscopic experiments on the probe to probe distances below 50 nm.

Finally, we discuss perspectives for application of the above methodology in characterization of molecular structures, i.e. molecular wires obtained by the on-surface synthesis approach on metal oxide surfaces [2-4].

Support by the European Commission under PAMS project (contract no. 610446) and by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (contract no. 0341/IP3/2016/74) are gratefully acknowledged.

[1] J. Yang et al., Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys., 73, 10702 (2016)

[2] M. Kolmer et. al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 52, 10300 – 10303 (2013)

[3] M. Kolmer et. al., Chem. Comm., 51, 11276 – 11279 (2015)

[4] G. Vasseur et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 138, 5685−5692 (2016)

Polarization switching in ferroelectric and multiferroic materials underpins the next generation of electronic devices such as tunneling devices, field effect transistors, and race-track memories. The switching mechanisms in these materials are extremely sensitive to local defects and structural imperfections at the micro- and nanometer scale, which have undesirable effects on ferroelectric domains. These considerations led to the development of Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) for imaging and manipulating local polarization states. In PFM, a micro-cantilever with a conductive tip is brought into contact with the sample surface. Periodic bias applied to the tip deforms the sample, which in turn causes the cantilever to vibrate, and these vibrations are recorded using an optical setup in the microscope. The current state-of-art PFM imaging and spectroscopy techniques measure the bias dependent material deformation either at a single frequency (using a lock-in-amplifier) or over a narrow band of frequencies thereby discarding valuable information from higher vibrational modes of the cantilever and multiple harmonics. As an extension, PFM spectroscopy techniques suffer from serious compromises in the measurement rate, voltage and spatial resolutions since they require the combination of a slow (~ 1 sec) switching signal and a fast (~ 1 – 10 msec) measurement signal. The slow measurement speed results in undesirable compromises between the imaged area, spatial resolution, and voltage resolution.

We report on a new voltage spectroscopy technique applied to PFM that rapidly acquires dense 2D maps of local hysteretic material response. This technique combines the acquisition of the complete information about the cantilever response with intelligent signal filtering techniques to enable direct measurement of material strain in response to the probing bias. Our technique enables precise spectroscopic imaging of the polarization switching phenomena 3,500 times faster than currently reported methods. By rapid acquisition of a large number of hysteretic loops on very dense grids, this technique will enable significant insight into nanoscale polarization dynamics and phenomena such as polarization fatigue or local wall displacements that remain difficult to study at the desired spatial and temporal scales, and are crucial for integration of ferroelectric nanostructures in future electronic devices.

Solid-liquid interfaces play an instrumental role in a broad range of natural phenomena in biological, hydrological, chemical and electrochemical systems. The latter include energy conversion and storage applications, such as fuel cells, supercapacitors, electrochromic devices, and batteries, whose performance strongly depends on the state of the solid-liquid interface. Key elements of this interfacial behavior are the formation of the electrical double layer (EDL), ionic transport through it, ionic adsorption, and Faradaic processes. Thus, understanding the structure and properties of the EDL is of critical importance. Despite more than a century of research on the EDL, its molecular structure and electrode potential dependence remain the subject of frontier research. Only a handful of experimental techniques, including surface force and spectral methods, are currently available for direct probing of the EDL, but even they do not offer adequate spatial resolution.

Here, we report on direct measurement of the EDL potential in a copper (II) sulfate electrolyte with Kelvin Probe Force microscopy (KPFM). The aqueous electrolyte is placed in a multichannel array, consisting of high aspect ratio, 2 μm diameter channels, sealed at the bottom and capped with bilayer graphene at the top. The system can be imaged in vacuo with high resolution scanning electron microscopy and KPFM, correlatively. The graphene membrane acts as both an electrode and a seal that prevents the electrolyte from evaporating into the vacuum. The KPFM probe scans over the subnanometer graphene membrane of individual channels and records potential of the EDL formed at the electrified graphene-electrolyte interface. Both graphene and bottom platinum electrode can be biased to modulate the response of the system to polarization. The collected data are compared to numerical simulation of EDL formation.

ES, HG, and AY acknowledge support under the Cooperative Research Agreement between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Award 70NANB14H209, through the University of Maryland. WM and BH acknowledge support of the National Research Council Research Associateship Program.

3D Dirac semimetals are a class of materials whose bulk electronic states are protected by topology, presenting intriguing new systems in which to study the rich physics of the quasiparticles that they host. One such system is the nodal line Dirac semimetal, wherein the conductance and valence bands have a line-like crossing along a closed loop in momentum space and disperse linearly in the vicinity of the resulting line node. This configuration gives rise to the prediction of exotic phenomena such as spin vortex rings, diverging mobility in the limit of vanishing chemical potential, and a linearly increasing dependence of the conductivity on temperature. Many of these compounds have their line node located hundreds of meV above the Fermi level, making direct observation of the line-node inaccessible to experimental techniques such as angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). We employ spectroscopic imaging scanning tunneling microscopy (SI-STM) at 4.5K to visualize the quasiparticle interference with point defects in zirconium silicon sulfide (ZrSiS). In combination with numerical modeling, we identify six groups of quasiparticle scattering vectors allowed within the material, and show that topological protection of the electronic bands is relaxed in the presence of certain defects. We also estimate the location of the line node.