Investigations of local electrical surface characteristics by dynamical scanning force microscopy

A technique is presented that allows to obtain information about sample sur face topography and local electrical surface properties simultaneously. A s canning electrical force microscope is used for that purpose which is based on an atomic force microscope (AFM) working in the dynamical mode. Differe nt information channels contained in the cantilever excitation spectrum are separated by a lock-in technique. The physical content of the technique is discussed in detail and the influence of surface topography on the non-top ographic imaging is demonstrated. Finally, the real advantages of cross-sec tional sample preparation (as known from electron microscopy) for this kind of scanning probe microscopy with respect to various applications is prese nted.