Resolution vertical/lateral

The main characteristic of the SPM is a sharp probe tip that scans a sample surface. The tip must remain in very close proximity to the surface because the SPM uses near-field interactions between the tip and a sample surface for examination. This near-field characteristic eliminates the resolution limit associated with optical and electron microscopy as discussed in the previous chapters, because their resolution is limited by the far-field interactions between light or electron waves and specimens. Diffraction of light or electron waves associated with far-field interactions limit their resolution to wavelength scales. The near-field interactions in a SPM, however, enable us to obtain a true image of surface atoms. Images of atoms can be obtained by an SPM because it can accurately measure the surface atom profiles in the vertical and lateral directions. The lateral and vertical resolutions of an SPM can be better than 0.1 nm, particularly the vertical resolution. The lateral range of an SPM measurement is up to about 100 /xm, and its vertical range is up to about 10 /xm. However, the SPM must operate in a... 

Provides three-dimensional information nondestructively, with 1.5 nm resolution laterally and 0.05 nm resolution vertically... 

This corresponds to the physician s stethoscope case mentioned above, and has been realized [208] by bringing one leg of a resonatmg 33 kHz quartz tiinmg fork close to the surface of a sample, which is being rastered in the x-y plane. As the fork-leg nears the sample, the fork s resonant frequency and therefore its amplitude is changed by interaction with the surface. Since the behaviour of the system appears to be dependent on the gas pressure, it may be assumed that the coupling is due to hydrodynamic mteractions within the fork-air-sample gap. Since the fork tip-sample distance is approximately 200 pm -1.120), tire teclmique is sensitive to the near-field component of the scattered acoustic signal. 1 pm lateral and 10 mn vertical resolutions have been obtained by the SNAM. 

Commercially available photon tunneling microscopes have a lateral resolution of 160 nm but subnanometer vertical resolution. The nondestmctive, instantaneous 3-D viewing of a surface (no scanning) yields real-time imaging as one traverses a given sample. The sample must be a dielectric, but transparent polymer tepHcas of opaque samples can be studied. 

Destructive Vertical resolution Lateral resolution Quantification Accuracy... 

In recent years, high-resolution x-ray diffraction has become a powerful method for studying layered strnctnres, films, interfaces, and surfaces. X-ray reflectivity involves the measurement of the angnlar dependence of the intensity of the x-ray beam reflected by planar interfaces. If there are multiple interfaces, interference between the reflected x-rays at the interfaces prodnces a series of minima and maxima, which allow determination of the thickness of the film. More detailed information about the film can be obtained by fitting the reflectivity curve to a model of the electron density profile. Usually, x-ray reflectivity scans are performed with a synchrotron light source. As with ellipsometry, x-ray reflectivity provides good vertical resolution [14,20] but poor lateral resolution, which is limited by the size of the probing beam, usually several tens of micrometers. 

Fig. 1.37. Topographic image of a grating obtained by the topograflner. The vertical resolution is about 30 A, and the lateral resolution is about 4000 A. (Reproduced from Young, Ward, and Scire, 1972, with permission.)...

In atomic force microscopy (AFM), the sharp tip of a microscopic probe attached to a flexible cantilever is drawn across an uneven surface such as a membrane (Fig. 1). Electrostatic and van der Waals interactions between the tip and the sample produce a force that moves the probe up and down (in the z dimension) as it encounters hills and valleys in the sample. A laser beam reflected from the cantilever detects motions of as little as 1 A. In one type of atomic force microscope, the force on the probe is held constant (relative to a standard force, on the order of piconewtons) by a feedback circuit that causes the platform holding the sample to rise or fall to keep the force constant. A series of scans in the x and y dimensions (the plane of the membrane) yields a three-dimensional contour map of the surface with resolution near the atomic scale—0.1 nm in the vertical dimension, 0.5 to 1.0 nm in the lateral dimensions. The membrane rafts shown in Figure ll-20b were visualized by this technique. 

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