AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session NS-MoM

Paper NS-MoM11
Spatial Resolution, Information Limit, and Contrast Transfer in Scanning Probe Microscopy

Monday, November 13, 2006, 11:20 am, Room 2016

Session: Nanoscale Imaging Techniques
Presenter: A.Y. Borisevich, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Authors: S.V. Kalinin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A.Y. Borisevich, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
V. Meunier, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
S. Dag, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
S. Jesse, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
B.J. Rodriguez, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
S.J. Pennycook, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
The development of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques in the last two decades has provided a unique set of tools for high and ultimately atomic resolution imaging of surface structure and properties. Despite the two-decade long history of the field, there still exists no universally accepted definition of spatial resolution in SPM. Here we illustrate that for several broad classes of SPMs, including MFM, EFM and KPFM, and STM, the image can be represented as a linear convolution of an ideal image representing sample properties and a microscope resolution function. The Fourier transform of the latter, the object transfer function (OTF), describes the transmission of the frequency components of the object to the experimental image. For techniques with a monotonic OTF, two characteristic lengths can be unambiguously defined - the Raleigh resolution and the information limit. Raleigh two point resolution establishes the conditions necessary for quantitative measurements of local properties and is related to the full width of the OTF at half maximum. The information limit of the technique determines the minimal feature size that can be detected and is limited by the noise level of the system. These concepts are applied to piezoresponse force microscopy and STM. For PFM, the resolution and information limits are determined from the domain wall profiles and from written periodic domain patterns. For STM, several surfaces with well-known structures, including Si (111) with 7x7 reconstruction and In/Si, are investigated. The dependence of the information limit on tip bias and the effect of non-rotationally invariant tip states on imaging are demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically.