Rastersondenmikroskopie und -spektroskopie von ungeordneten Oberflächen
Final Report Abstract
The results presented in this report repeatedly support the notion that the high resolution characterizafion of amorphous surfaces by Atomic Force Microscopy is possible over a wide range of materials. However, the feature that makes this technique unique, namely to be applicable to dielectric surfaces, often makes it also difficult to achieve atomic resolution. This is easy to understand, since the interaction potential belween the cantilever (tip) and the surface, that govems the AFM measurements is not a unique interaction, like i.e. the tunnel current in the case of the Scaiming Tunnel Microscope, but the combination of different both short and long range electronic and electrostatic interactions. Thus, in the high resolution imaging of disordered surfaces, some parameters like the extemal noise and the geometry itself of the analyzed surface, have a decisive influence on the resolution that can be achieved, and the setup ofthe experimental apparatus must be more refmed than in normal SFM applications. This is the reason why a lot of work was recently devoted in this direction, and as the results of this project suggest, the fmal goal to make this technique a successful and reproducible method to obtain information about the short range order of amorphous surfaces, was achieved.
