Research Article

Finite Conductivity Effects in Electrostatic Force Microscopy on Thin Dielectric Films: A Theoretical Model

Figure 2

(a) Electrostatic potential drop between the tip apex and the sample for 5 thin film configurations, described in the figure by and . (b) Electrostatic vertical force versus tip-sample distance for three related thin film configurations, where the dielectric constants of the thin films that do not have any conductivity have been adjusted to fit the upper and lower limit of the thin film with  nm. In both figures,  nm, ,  V, and  nm.
(a)
(b)