A NOVEL CAPACITANCE MICROSCOPE

A capacitance microscope has been used for imaging conducting surfaces . It differs from earlier designs in three major respects: the princip le of capacitance detection, the coaxial probe employed, and the opera ting frequency. The impedance of the probe with respect to a conductin g backplane is sensed, which allows the instrument to resolve the comp onents of the complex capacitance. The probe and input stage design re duces the parasitic capacitances to approximately 4 X 10(-14) F. The l ateral resolution achieved is approximately 10 nm.