Karoutsos Vagelis
Materials Science Department, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece.
J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2009 Dec;9(12):6783-98. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2009.1474.
In this article we present a review on instrumentation and the modes of operation of a scanning probe microscope. In detail, we review the main techniques of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM), which are Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), focusing our attention on the latter one. The AFM instrument provides information on the roughness and grain size of thin films. As an example we review recent results on two metallic thin film systems: thin Ag films deposited on glass, and Ni/Pt compositionally modulated multilayers deposited on glass, Si, and polyimide substrates. To show the validity of the grain size measurements, we compare the data with the ones resulting from X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. We show that the AFM results are reliable for grain diameters as small as 14 nm, which is approximately comparable to the tip radius. Finally, we deal with Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) results on Co/Pt and Co/Au multilayers. We observe perpendicularly magnetized domains. The domain configurations are correlated to the magnetization hysteresis curves.
在本文中，我们对扫描探针显微镜的仪器设备及操作模式进行了综述。详细而言，我们回顾了扫描探针显微镜（SPM）的主要技术，即扫描隧道显微镜（STM）和原子力显微镜（AFM），重点关注后者。AFM仪器可提供有关薄膜粗糙度和晶粒尺寸的信息。作为示例，我们回顾了两种金属薄膜系统的近期研究结果：沉积在玻璃上的Ag薄膜，以及沉积在玻璃、Si和聚酰亚胺衬底上的Ni/Pt成分调制多层膜。为了证明晶粒尺寸测量的有效性，我们将数据与X射线衍射（XRD）测量结果进行了比较。我们表明，对于小至14nm的晶粒直径，AFM结果是可靠的，这与针尖半径大致相当。最后，我们讨论了Co/Pt和Co/Au多层膜的磁力显微镜（MFM）结果。我们观察到垂直磁化畴。畴结构与磁化滞后曲线相关。
