Scanning electrochemical microscopy

• Main Authors: McKelvey, Kim Martin, Unwin, Patrick Robert
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.06.2018
• Subjects: APPLICATIONS OF SCANNING-PROBE TECHNIQUES, e.g. SCANNING PROBEMICROSCOPY [SPM]; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASUREMENT OR ANALYSIS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASURING; NANOTECHNOLOGY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SCANNING-PROBE TECHNIQUES OR APPARATUS; SPECIFIC USES OR APPLICATIONS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; TESTING; TRANSPORTING

A method of controlling a scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip comprising the following steps: oscillating the scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip relative to the surface of interest; moving the oscillating scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip towards the surface of interest; detecting damping of an amplitude of the oscillation of the scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip resulting from the scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip coming into contact with the surface of interest at the first location; using the detected damping to detect the surface of interest; retracting the scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip away from the surface of interest without first translating the scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip along the surface of interest while the scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip is in intermittent contact with the surface of interest. The method further comprises measuring electrochemical signals produced at the oscillating scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip while moving the oscillating scanning electrochemical microscopy probe tip towards and/or away from the surface of interest.