Magnetic actuation and thermal cantilevers for temperature and frequency dependent atomic force microscopy

1. A method of operating a probe microscope to characterize a region of a sample with sub-micron spatial resolution, the method comprising the steps of:

a. interacting a probe tip of a self-heating cantilever probe with a surface of the sample;

b. providing a magnetic source that generates a magnetic field in proximity to the cantilever probe; and

c. passing a current through the self-heating cantilever probe so as to generate a force on the cantilever probe due to an interaction between the current and the magnetic field.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of measuring a signal indicative of a motion of the cantilever probe.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the magnetic field is substantially aligned along a length of the cantilever probe.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the current is an alternating current at one or more frequencies, thereby generating an oscillatory force on the cantilever.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising repeating the current passing step at a plurality of frequencies and measuring a frequency dependent response of the cantilever probe interacting with the sample surface.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of determining a contact resonant frequency of the cantilever probe.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of measuring a viscoelastic response of the sample.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of using the cantilever probe to heat a region of a sample and repeating the current passing step at a plurality of controlled cantilever temperatures.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of determining a thermal transition temperature of the region of the sample by detecting a change in oscillatory motion of the cantilever probe as a function of measured temperature in response to an AC current passed through the cantilever probe.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the thermal transition is a glass transition.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the sample comprises a thin film having a thickness of less than 100 nm.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the sample comprises a filled polymer having a fill percentage of greater than 10% by volume.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the sample comprises a polymer having a crystallinity percentage greater than 10% by volume.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the sample comprises a polymer having a crosslink percentage greater than 10% by volume.

15. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of repeating the step of determining a contact resonant frequency at a plurality of cantilever probe temperatures.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of determining a thermal transition temperature of a region of the sample surface by detecting a change in the contact resonance frequency of the cantilever probe as a function of temperature.

17. The method of claim 4 wherein a frequency of the oscillatory force is greater than 10 kHz.

18. The method of claim 4 wherein a frequency of the oscillatory force is greater than 100 kHz.

19. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of calculating a signal indicative of a viscoelastic property of a region of the sample at a plurality of temperatures.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the viscoelastic property comprises a property selected from the group consisting of: E′, E″, tan(delta) and any combination of these.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of applying time temperature superposition to generate a master curve of the viscoelastic property of the region of the sample.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of using time-temperature superposition factors to calculate an activation energy of the region of the sample.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of repeating the passing step at a plurality of regions of the sample to create a spatially resolved map of a property of the sample.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the property of the sample is selected from the group consisting of: topography, elasticity, damping, storage modulus, loss modulus, tan(delta), glass transition temperature, melting temperature and any combination of these.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of adjusting a frequency of AC current passed through the cantilever probe such that the frequency substantially corresponds to a resonance frequency of the cantilever probe.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the resonance frequency corresponds to a contact resonant frequency of the cantilever probe in contact with the sample.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein the cantilever probe comprises two substantially parallel arms such that a Lorentz force on each of the two arms substantially cancels and a primary net force is generated at a tip end of the cantilever probe.

28. The method of claim 8 wherein the temperature of the cantilever probe is ramped at more than 100° C./minute.

29. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of controlling a temperature of the cantilever probe.

30. The method of claim 29 , wherein the step of controlling a temperature of the cantilever probe comprises heating the cantilever probe by a temperature of more than 3° C., more than 5° C. or more than 10° C.

31. The method of claim 29 , wherein the step of controlling a temperature of the cantilever probe comprises measuring and maintaining the temperature of the cantilever probe within 1° C. of a selected temperature over a period of 1 μs or more, over a period of 10 μs or more, over a period of 100 μs or more or over a period of 1 ms or more.

32. The method of claim 29 , wherein the step of controlling a temperature of the cantilever probe comprises heating the cantilever probe to a selected temperature and continuously or periodically measuring the temperature of the cantilever probe.

33. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of controlling the force on the cantilever probe.

34. The method of claim 33 , wherein the step of controlling the force on the cantilever probe comprises providing a change in frequency, a change in magnitude or both changes in frequency and magnitude of said current passing through the self-heating cantilever probe.

35. The method of claim 33 , wherein the step of controlling the force on the cantilever probe comprises changing a strength of said magnetic field.

36. The method of claim 1 , wherein said self-heating cantilever probe comprises a heater region having an electrical resistivity selected over the range of 1×10 −5 Ω-cm to 15 Ω-cm.

37. The method of claim 36 , wherein said heater region comprises a thermistor.

38. A method of operating a probe microscope to characterize a region of a sample with sub-micron spatial resolution, the method comprising the steps of:

a. interacting a probe tip of a cantilever probe with a surface of the sample;

b. providing a magnetic source that creates a magnetic field in proximity to the cantilever probe;

c. passing a current through the cantilever probe so as to generate a force on the cantilever probe due to an interaction between the current and the magnetic field, wherein the cantilever probe comprises two substantially parallel conductive arms and a conductive end region; and

d. measuring a signal indicative of the motion of the cantilever.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the current comprises an alternating current at one or more frequencies, thereby generating an oscillatory force on the cantilever probe.

40. The method of claim 39 further comprising the step of repeating the passing and measuring steps at a plurality of frequencies and measuring a frequency dependent response of the cantilever probe interacting with the sample surface.

41. The method of claim 40 further comprising the step of determining a contact resonant frequency of the cantilever probe in contact with the sample.

42. An apparatus for characterizing a region of a sample with sub-micron spatial resolution, the apparatus comprising:

a. a cantilever probe comprising an integrated heater and a probe tip;

b. a magnetic source positioned proximate to the cantilever probe;

c. an AC current source positioned in electrical communication with the cantilever probe, the AC current source for driving a current through the integrated heater of the cantilever probe to generate a Lorentz force on the cantilever probe; and

d. a deflection measurement system positioned to measure a signal indicative of an oscillatory motion of the cantilever probe.

43. The apparatus of claim 42 further comprising a DC current source positioned in electrical communication with the cantilever probe, the DC current source for driving current through the integrated heater of the cantilever probe to adjust the static temperature of the cantilever probe.

44. The apparatus of claim 42 further comprising a demodulator positioned in electrical communication with the deflection measurement system, the demodulator for determining a property of the oscillatory motion of the cantilever probe, wherein the property is selected from the group consisting of: amplitude, phase, frequency and any combination of these.

45. The apparatus of claim 42 further comprising a self-resonance tracker positioned in electrical communication with the deflection measurement system and the AC current source, the self-resonance tracker for adjusting a frequency of AC current through the integrated heater of the cantilever probe to maintain the oscillatory motion substantially at a resonant frequency of the cantilever probe.

46. The apparatus of claim 45 wherein the self-resonance tracker adjusts a frequency of AC current to a contact resonant frequency of the cantilever.

47. The apparatus of claim 42 wherein the cantilever probe further comprises two substantially parallel arms.

48. The apparatus of claim 47 wherein the magnetic source is arranged substantially parallel to the length of the two substantially parallel arms.

49. The apparatus of claim 48 wherein Lorentz forces in the two substantially parallel arms substantially cancel such that that a primary net force on the cantilever probe occurs at a tip end of the cantilever probe.

50. The apparatus of claim 42 , further comprising a temperature measurement system that produces a signal indicative of a tip-sample temperature, the temperature measurement system provided in electrical communication with the cantilever probe.