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The ongoing development of single electron, nano and atomic scale semiconductor devices would benefit greatly from a characterization tool capable of detecting single electron charging events with high spatial resolution, at low temperature. In this work, we introduce a novel Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) instrument capable of measuring critical device dimensions, surface roughness, electrical surface potential, and ultimately the energy levels of quantum dots and single electron transistors in ultra miniaturized semiconductor devices. Characterization of nanofabricated devices with this type of instrument presents a challenge: finding the device. We therefore also present a process to efficiently find a nanometre size quantum dot buried in a $10 \times 10~\text{mm}^2$ silicon sample using a combination of optical positioning, capacitive sensors and AFM topography in vacuum.

We use electrostatic force microscopy to spatially resolve random telegraph noise at the Si/SiO$_2$ interface. Our measurements demonstrate that two-state fluctuations are localized at interfacial traps, with bias-dependent rates and amplitudes. These two-level systems lead to correlated carrier number and mobility fluctuations with a range of characteristic timescales; taken together as an ensemble, they give rise to a $1/f$ power spectral trend. Such individual defect fluctuations at the Si/SiO$_2$ interface impair the performance and reliability of nanoscale semiconductor devices, and will be a significant source of noise in semiconductor-based quantum sensors and computers. The fluctuations measured here are associated with a four-fold competition of rates, including slow two-state switching on the order of seconds and, in one state, fast switching on the order of nanoseconds which is associated with energy loss.

Inducing an inversion layer in organic semiconductors is a highly nontrivial, but critical, achievement for producing organic field-effect transistor (OFET) devices, which rely on the generation of inversion, accumulation, and depletion regimes for successful operation. In recent years, a major milestone was reached: an OFET was made to successfully operate in the inversion-mode for the first time. Here, we develop a pulsed bias technique to characterize the dopant type of any organic material system, without prior knowledge or characterization of the material in question. We use this technique on a pentacene/PTCDI heterostructure and thus deduce that pentacene is n-doped by impurities. Additionally, through tip-induced band-bending, we generate inversion, depletion, and accumulation regimes over a 20~nm radius, three monolayer thick n-doped pentacene island. Our findings demonstrate that nanometer-scale lateral extent and thickness are sufficient for an OFET device to operate in the inversion regime., Comment: Updated manuscript with additional data and findings

Theory predicts that two-dimensional (2D) materials may only exist in the presence of out-ofplane deformations on atomic length scales, frequently referred to as ripples. While such ripples can be detected via electron microscopy, their direct observation via surface-based techniques and characterization in terms of interaction forces and energies remain limited, preventing an unambiguous study of their effect on mechanical characteristics, including but not limited to friction anisotropy. Here, we employ high-resolution atomic force microscopy to demonstrate the presence of atomic-scale ripples on supported samples of few-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_{2}$). Three-dimensional force / energy spectroscopy is utilized to study the effect of ripples on the interaction landscape. Friction force microscopy reveals multiple symmetries for friction anisotropy, explained by studying rippled sample areas as a function of scan size. Our experiments contribute to the continuing development of a rigorous understanding of the nanoscale mechanics of 2D materials., Comment: 22 pages including 4 figures in the main text, 2 figures in the supplemental information

Working in the framework of morphoelasticity, we develop a model of neurite growth in response to elastic deformation. We decompose the applied stretch into an elastic component and a growth component, and adopt an observationally-motivated model for the growth law. We then compute the best-fit model parameters by fitting to force-extension curves from measurements of constant-speed uniaxial deformations of mechanically-induced neurites of rat hippocampal neurons. We find a time constant for the growth law of 0.009~s$^{-1}$, similar to the diffusion rate of actin in a cell. Our results characterize the kinematics of neurite growth and establish new limits on the growth rate of neurites., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures

Reliable operation of frequency modulation mode atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) depends on a clean resonance of an AFM cantilever. It is recognized that the spurious mechanical resonances which originate from various mechanical components in the microscope body are excited by a piezoelectric element that is intended for exciting the AFM cantilever oscillation and these spurious resonance modes cause the serious undesirable signal artifacts in both frequency shift and dissipation signals. We present an experimental setup to excite only the oscillation of the AFM cantilever in a fiber-optic interferometer system using optical excitation force. While the optical excitation force is provided by a separate laser light source with a different wavelength (excitation laser : {\lambda} = 1310 nm), the excitation laser light is still guided through the same single-mode optical fiber that guides the laser light (detection laser : {\lambda} = 1550 nm) used for the interferometric detection of the cantilever deflection. We present the details of the instrumentation and its performance. This setup allows us to eliminate the problems associated with the spurious mechanical resonances such as the apparent dissipation signal and the inaccuracy in the resonance frequency measurement., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures

The dielectric breakdown approach for forming nanopores has greatly accelerated the pace of research in solid-state nanopore sensing, enabling inexpensive formation of nanopores via a bench top setup. Here we demonstrate the potential of tip controlled dielectric breakdown (TCLB) to fabricate pores 100$\times$ faster, with high scalability and nanometre positioning precision. A conductive atomic force microscope (AFM) tip is brought into contact with a nitride membrane positioned above an electrolyte reservoir. Application of a voltage pulse at the tip leads to the formation of a single nanoscale pore. Pores are formed precisely at the tip position with a complete suppression of multiple pore formation. In addition, our approach greatly accelerates the electric breakdown process, leading to an average pore fabrication time on the order of 10 ms, at least 2 orders of magnitude shorter than achieved by classic dielectric breakdown approaches. With this fast pore writing speed we can fabricate over 300 pores in half an hour on the same membrane., Comment: nanopore, AFM, dielectric breakdown, single molecule sensing

A common use for atomic force microscopy is to quantify local forces through tip-sample interactions between the probe tip and a sample surface. The accuracy of these measurements depends on the accuracy to which the cantilever spring constant is known. Recent work has demonstrated that the measured spring constant of a cantilever can vary up to a factor of two, even for the exact same cantilever measured by different users on different microscopes. Here we demonstrate that a standard method for calibrating the spring constant (using the oscillations due to thermal energy) is susceptible to ambient noise, which can alter the result significantly. We demonstrate a new step-by-step method to measure the spring constant by actively driving the cantilever to measure the resonance frequency and quality factor, giving results that are unaffected by acoustic noise. Our method can be performed rapidly on any atomic force microscope without any expensive additional hardware.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an analytical surface characterization tool which can reveal a sample's topography with high spatial resolution while simultaneously probing tip-sample interactions. Local measurement of chemical properties with high-resolution has gained much popularity in recent years with advances in dynamic AFM methodologies. A calibration factor is required to convert the electrical readout to a mechanical oscillation amplitude in order to extract quantitative information about the surface. We propose a new calibration technique for the oscillation amplitude of electrically driven probes, which is based on measuring the electrical energy input to maintain the oscillation amplitude constant. We demonstrate the application of the new technique with quartz tuning fork including the qPlus configuration, while the same principle can be applied to other piezoelectric resonators such as length extension resonators, or piezoelectric cantilevers. The calibration factor obtained by this technique is found to be in agreement with using thermal noise spectrum method for capsulated, decapsulated tuning forks and tuning forks in the qPlus configuration., Comment: Main Text 10 pages (3 Figures and 1 Table), Supplemental Information (7 pages)

We review a new implementation of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) in which the dissipation signal of frequency modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) is used for dc bias voltage feedback (D-KPFM). The dissipation arises from an oscillating electrostatic force that is coherent with the tip oscillation, which is caused by applying the ac voltage between the tip and sample. The magnitude of the externally induced dissipation is found to be proportional to the effective dc bias voltage, which is the difference between the applied dc voltage and the contact potential difference. Two different implementations of D-KPFM are presented. In the first implementation, the frequency of the applied ac voltage, $f_\mathrm{el}$, is chosen to be the same as the tip oscillation ($f_\mathrm{el} = f_\mathrm{m}$: $1\omega$D-KPFM). In the second one, the ac voltage frequency, $f_\mathrm{el}$, is chosen to be twice the tip oscillation frequency ($f_\mathrm{el}= 2 f_\mathrm{m}$: $2\omega$D-KPFM). In $1\omega$D-KPFM, the dissipation is proportional to the electrostatic force, which enables the use of a small ac voltage amplitude even down to $\approx 10$\,mV. In $2\omega$D-KPFM, the dissipation is proportional to the electrostatic force gradient, which results in the same potential contrast as that obtained by FM-KPFM. D-KPFM features a simple implementation with no lock-in amplifier and faster scanning as it requires no low frequency modulation. The use of a small ac voltage amplitude in $1\omega$D-KPFM is of great importance in characterizing of technically relevant materials in which their electrical properties can be disturbed by the applied electric field. $2\omega$D-KPFM is useful when more accurate potential measurement is required. The operations in $1\omega$ and $2\omega$D-KPFM can be switched easily to take advantage of both features at the same location on a sample., Comment: Chapter of the forthcoming book "Kelvin probe force microscopy - From single charge detection to device characterization" edited by Sascha Sadewasser and Thilo Glatzel

We report a Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) implementation using the dissipation signal of a frequency modulation atomic force microscopy that is capable of detecting the gradient of electrostatic force rather than electrostatic force. It features a simple implementation and faster scanning as it requires no low frequency modulation. We show that applying a coherent ac voltage with two times the cantilever oscillation frequency induces the dissipation signal proportional to the electrostatic force gradient which depends on the effective dc bias voltage including the contact potential difference. We demonstrate the KPFM images of a MoS$_2$ flake taken with the present method is in quantitative agreement with that taken with the frequency modulated Kelvin probe force microscopy technique., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, supplemental materials. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1508.05866

Electric charge detection by atomic force microscopy (AFM) with single- electron resolution (e-EFM) is a promising way to investigate the electronic level structure of individual quantum dots (QD). The oscillating AFM tip modulates the energy of the QDs, causing single electrons to tunnel between QDs and an electrode. The resulting oscillating electrostatic force changes the resonant frequency and damping of the AFM cantilever, enabling electrometry with a single-electron sensitivity. Quantitative electronic level spectroscopy is possible by sweeping the bias voltage. Charge stability diagram can be obtained by scanning the AFM tip around the QD. e-EFM technique enables to investigate individual colloidal nanoparticles and self- assembled QDs without nanoscale electrodes. e-EFM is a quantum electromechanical system where the back-action of a tunneling electron is detected by AFM; it can also be considered as a mechanical analog of admittance spectroscopy with a radio frequency resonator, which is emerging as a promising tool for quantum state readout for quantum computing. In combination with the topography imaging capability of the AFM, e-EFM is a powerful tool for investigating new nanoscale material systems which can be used as quantum bits., Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) routinely achieves structural information in the sub-nm length scale. Measuring time resolved properties on this length scale to understand kinetics at the nm scale remains an elusive goal. We present a general analysis of the lower limit for time resolution in AFM. Our finding suggests the time resolution in AFM is ultimately limited by the well-known thermal limit of AFM and not as often proposed by the mechanical response time of the force sensing cantilever. We demonstrate a general pump-probe approach using the cantilever as a detector responding to the averaged signal. This method can be applied to any excitation signal such as electrical, thermal, magnetic or optical. Experimental implementation of this method allows us to measure a photocarrier decay time of ~1 ps in low temperature grown GaAs using a cantilever with a resonance frequency of 280 kHz.

We report a new experimental technique for Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) using the dissipation signal of frequency modulation atomic force microscopy for bias voltage feedback. It features a simple implementation and faster scanning as it requires no low frequency modulation. The dissipation is caused by the oscillating electrostatic force that is coherent with the tip oscillation, which is induced by a sinusoidally oscillating voltage applied between the tip and sample. We analyzed the effect of the phase of the oscillating force on the frequency shift and dissipation and found that the relative phase of 90$^\circ$ that causes only the dissipation is the most appropriate for KPFM measurements. The present technique requires a significantly smaller ac voltage amplitude by virtue of enhanced force detection due to the resonance enhancement and the use of fundamental flexural mode oscillation for electrostatic force detection. This feature will be of great importance in the electrical characterizations of technically relevant materials whose electrical properties are influenced by the externally applied electric field as is the case in semiconductor electronic devices., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Strong confinement of charges in few electron systems such as in atoms, molecules and quantum dots leads to a spectrum of discrete energy levels that are often shared by several degenerate quantum states. Since the electronic structure is key to understanding their chemical properties, methods that probe these energy levels in situ are important. We show how electrostatic force detection using atomic force microscopy reveals the electronic structure of individual and coupled self-assembled quantum dots. An electron addition spectrum in the Coulomb blockade regime, resulting from a change in cantilever resonance frequency and dissipation during tunneling events, shows one by one electron charging of a dot. The spectra show clear level degeneracies in isolated quantum dots, supported by the first observation of predicted temperature-dependent shifts of Coulomb blockade peaks. Further, by scanning the surface we observe that several quantum dots may reside on what topologically appears to be just one. These images of grouped weakly and strongly coupled dots allow us to estimate their relative coupling strengths., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

Single electron charging in an individual InAs quantum dot was observed by electrostatic force measurements with an atomic force microscope (AFM). The resonant frequency shift and the dissipated energy of an oscillating AFM cantilever were measured as a function of the tip-back electrode voltage and the resulting spectra show distinct jumps when the tip was positioned above the dot. The observed jumps in the frequency shift, with corresponding peaks in dissipation, are attributed to a single electron tunneling between the dot and the back electrode governed by Coulomb blockade effect, and are consistent with a model based on the free energy of the system. The observed phenomenon may be regarded as the ``force version'' of the Coulomb blockade effect., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Electronic transport properties of Au nano-structure are investigated using both experimental and theoretical analysis. Experimentally, stable Au nanowires were created using mechanically controllable break junction in air, and simultaneous current-voltage (I-V) and differential conductance $\delta I/\delta V$ data were measured. The atomic device scale structures are mechanically very stable up to bias voltage $V_b\sim0.6V$ and have a life time of a few $minutes$. Facilitated by a shape function data analysis technique which finger-prints electronic properties of the atomic device, our data show clearly differential conductance fluctuations with an amplitude $>1%$ at room temperature, and a nonlinear I-V characteristics. To understand the transport features of these atomic scale conductors, we carried out {\it ab initio} calculations on various Au atomic wires. The theoretical results demonstrate that transport properties of these systems crucially depend on the electronic properties of the scattering region, the leads, and most importantly the interaction of the scattering region with the leads. For ideal, clean Au contacts, the theoretical results indicate a linear I-V behavior for bias voltage $V_b<0.5V$. When sulfur impurities exist at the contact junction, nonlinear I-V curves emerge due to a tunnelling barrier established in the presence of the S atom. The most striking observation is that even a single S atom can cause a qualitative change of the I-V curve from linear to nonlinear. A quantitatively favorable comparison between experimental data and theoretical results is obtained. We also report other results concerning quantum transport through Au atomic contacts., Comment: 11 pages and 9 figures, submitted to PRB