Combined shear-force/field emission microscope for local electrical surface investigation

In view of the rapid growth of interest in atomic force microscopy in the investigation of surface properties, the modular shear-force/field emission microscope is herein described. The electrochemically etched tungsten tip is used both as near field force detector and collector of tip–sample emission current. The setup allows to perform simultaneous measurement of the surface topography and field emission current. After the result is obtained, one can correlate presence of features on the surface with emission “map” which shows electrical surface properties. Presented setup is based on the fiber Fabry–Perot interferometer for the measurement of microtip oscillation. The optical detection allows one to apply voltage to the conductive tip. Moreover, the presented setup is extremely sensitive and compact.The presented preliminary results which were obtained by scanning HOPG (highly ordered pyrolytic graphite) and gold surface show the efficiency of the method and give perspectives for further applications.