Light-modulated van der Waals force microscopy

Yu-Xiao Han, Benfeng Bai (), Jian-Yu Zhang, Jia-Tai Huang, Peng-Yi Feng and Hong-Bo Sun ()
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Yu-Xiao Han: Tsinghua University
Benfeng Bai: Tsinghua University
Jian-Yu Zhang: Tsinghua University
Jia-Tai Huang: Tsinghua University
Peng-Yi Feng: Tsinghua University
Hong-Bo Sun: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Atomic force microscope generally works by manipulating the absolute magnitude of the van der Waals force between tip and specimen. This force is, however, less sensitive to atom species than to tip-sample separations, making compositional identification difficult, even under multi-modal strategies or other atomic force microscopy variations. Here, we report the phenomenon of a light-modulated tip-sample van der Waals force whose magnitude is found to be material specific, which can be employed to discriminate heterogeneous compositions of materials. We thus establish a near-field microscopic method, named light-modulated van der Waals force microscopy. Experiments discriminating heterogeneous crystalline phases or compositions in typical materials demonstrate a high compositional resolving capability, represented by a 20 dB signal-to-noise ratio on a MoTe2 film under the excitation of a 633 nm laser of 1.2 mW, alongside a sub-10 nm lateral spatial resolution, smaller than the tip size of 20 nm. The simplicity of the light modulation mechanism, minute excitation light power, broadband excitation wavelength, and diversity of the applicable materials imply broad applications of this method on material characterization, particularly on two-dimensional materials that are promising candidates for next-generation chips.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53461-5

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