Nanoscale-Microscopy

Presented by:-
Atul Kumar Dwivedi
Roll No:- MT09MVD003

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 Introduction

 Nobel laureate physicist, Werner Heisenberg

declared “it turns out that we can no longer
talk of the particle apart from the process of
observation”[1].

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 Introduction

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 Topics of Discussion
 Why do we do measurement?

 What is the need of microscopes?

 History

 Nanoscale metrology

 Microscopy

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 History

 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS - report to the congress, 1821

 “Weights and measures may be ranked

among the necessaries of life to every individual
of human society. They enter into the
economical arrangements and daily concerns of
every family. They are necessary to every
occupation of human industry;”

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 History 
 1875:-treaty by 17 countries known as “meter
convention”

 1900:-around 35 countries adopted metric

system.

 1938-SEM

 1960:-Extensively revised and SI units are

standardized.after that 3-4 times these standard
revised

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 History 

 1983: STM

 1986:AFM

 After that many versions of AFM are developed

in 2009 NIST started project on 4th generation
AFM

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 Nanoscale Metrology[2]

2. Scale and Line-width metrology

4. Nano-indentation and characterization

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 Microscopy

 Optical microscopy

 Scanning electron microscopy

 Scanning probe microscopy

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 Optical Microscopy

 Limitations:

 Can not be used below 100’s of nm.

 Observation of some characteristic properties

like electrical and magnetic properties is not
possible

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 Scanning Electron 
Microscopy

 The first SEM was constructed in1938 by von

Ardenne by rastering The electron beam of a
transmission Electron microscope (TEM) to
Essentially form a scanning Transmission
electron microscope(TEM)

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 Scanning Electron 
Microscopy

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 Scanning Electron 
Microscopy

 Mostly back scatter detector and secondary

electron detectors are of type
 Everhart­Thornley detector or a solid state 
detector

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 Everhart-Thornley
Detector

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 Scanning Probe 
Microscopy

3. Scanning tunneling microscopy

5. Atomic force microscopy

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
 In 1981 at IBM Zurich research Laboratory by
Binnig and Rohrer

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
 Steps:
 A: Gradually increase the tunneling current to
move towards the adatom until
interaction energy=activation energy

 B: Pull the adatom to desired location

 C: Gradually decrease the tunneling current

to move away the tip from the adatom

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
In the presence of a potential U(z),
assuming 1-dimensional case, the energy
levels ψn(z) of the electrons are given by
solutions to Schrödinger’s equation

where ħ is the reduced Planck’s

constant, z is the position, and m is the mass of
an electron. If an electron of energy E is incident
upon an energy barrier of height U(z),

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
 the electron wave function is a traveling
wave solution of shrodinger’s equation

where

 if E > U(z), which is true for a wave

function inside the tip or inside the sample. Inside
a barrier, such as between tip and sample ,E < U
(z) so the wave functions which satisfy this are
decaying waves,

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy

Where

It quantifies the decay of the wave inside the barrier,

with the barrier in the +z direction for κ.
Let us assume the bias is V and the barrier width
is W. This probability, P, that an electron at z=0
(left edge of barrier) can be found at z=W (right
edge of barrier) is proportional to the wave
function squared,
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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
,

If the bias is small, we can let U − E ≈ φM in the

expression for κ, where φM, the work function,
gives the minimum energy needed to bring an
electron from an occupied level.
. The current due to an applied oltage V (assume
tunneling occurs sample to tip) depends on two
factors: 1) the number of electrons between Ef and
eV in the sample, and 2) the number among them
which have corresponding free states to tunnel
into on the other side of the barrier at the tip.

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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
. Mathematically, this tunneling current is given by

One can sum the probability over energy differnce to

get the number of states available in this energy
range per unit volume The LDOS near some
energy E in an interval ε is given by

and the tunnel current at a small bias V is

proportional to the LDOS near the Fermi level,
which gives important information about the
sample
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 Scanning Tunneling 
Microscopy
Thus the tunneling current is given by

where ρs(0,Ef) is the LDOS near the Fermi level of the

sample at the sample surface

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 Atomic Force 
Microscopy

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 Atomic Force 
Microscopy
 Example:measurement of a
resistance and carrier profile of a
semiconductor

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 Atomic Force 
Microscopy

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 Atomic Force 
microscopy

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 Atomic Force 
Microscopy

Laser=633nm He-Ne

R=ρ(l/A)
σ = neμ
n= 1/(e ρ μ )

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 Carrier Conc. By AFM

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 Comparison
Optical SEM TEM AFM

Max 100’s nm 1’s nm atomic atomic

Resolution
Typical cost 10-50 200-400 500 or 100-200
(*$1000) higher
Imaging Air,fluid Vacuum Vacuum Air,fluid,vac
environment uum,
special gas
Surfaces

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 Surfaces and Corresponding 
Microscopes
1.Atomically smooth surfaces
 Natural surfaces- mineral surfaces
 Epitaxial growth on a semiconductor

 Optical surfaces

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 Surfaces and Corresponding 
Microscopes
 For atomically smooth surfaces
both SEM and AFM can be used
but better is AFM because it is
having vertical resolution of <.45Å

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 Surfaces and Corresponding 
Microscopes
2.Thin films
 Example of “rugged” polysilicon
Films which are used as capacitors in 
Memory devices. By making 
these films Rough, the surface 
area is increased

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 Surfaces and Corresponding 
Microscopes
3.Rough surfaces
One of the key advantages of 
the SEM with respect to other types 
of Microscopy is its large depth of 
field.This ability makes it possible to 
image Very rough surfaces with 
millimeters of vertical information

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 Surfaces and Corresponding 
Microscopes
3.Rough surfaces

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 Questions? Comments

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 References

[1] Published by: The MIT Press on

behalf of
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026454
[2] National institute of standards
and technology:
http://www.mel.nist.gov/programs/pbookweb

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 References
 [3] An introduction to STM
http://www.columbia.edu/~jcc2161/doc

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