A high-resolution measurement system for novel scanning thermal microscopy resistive nanoprobes

• Published in: Measurement science & technology Vol. 22; no. 9; pp. 94023 - 1-6
• Main Authors: Wielgoszewski, Grzegorz, Sulecki, Przemysław, Janus, Paweł, Grabiec, Piotr, Zschech, Ehrenfried, Gotszalk, Teodor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.09.2011
• Subjects: Modules; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Noise levels; Scanning thermal microscopy; Thermal measurements; Wheatstone bridges
• ISSN: 0957-0233; 1361-6501
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-0233/22/9/094023

In this paper, a scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) module with a modified Wheatstone bridge is presented. It is intended to be used with a novel four-terminal thermoresistive nanoprobe, which was designed for performing thermal measurements in standard static-mode atomic force microscopes. The modified Wheatstone bridge architecture is also compared to a Wheatstone bridge and a Thomson bridge in terms of their temperature measurement sensitivities. In fixed conditions, they are found to be (7.05 plus or minus 0.04) mu V K super(-1) for the modified Wheatstone, while (5.43 plus or minus 0.06) mu V K super(-1) for the Wheatstone and (0.91 plus or minus 0.09) mu V K super(-1) for the Thomson bridge. The usability of the three set-ups with four-terminal nanoprobes is also discussed. The design of devices included in the module is presented and the noise level of the modified Wheatstone bridge is estimated. A proportional-integral-derivative controller for active-mode SThM is also introduced.