title: Broadband nanodielectric spectroscopy by means of amplitude modulation electrostatic force microscopy (AM-EFM).
abstract: In this work we present a new AFM based approach to measure the local dielectric response of polymer films at the nanoscale by means of Amplitude Modulation Electrostatic Force Microscopy (AM-EFM). The proposed experimental method is based on the measurement of the tip-sample force via the detection of the second harmonic component of the photosensor signal by means of a lock-in amplifier. This approach allows reaching unprecedented broad frequency range (2-3 × 10(4)Hz) without restrictions on the sample environment. The method was tested on different poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) films at several temperatures. Simple analytical models for describing the electric tip-sample interaction semi-quantitatively account for the dependence of the measured local dielectric response on samples with different thicknesses and at several tip-sample distances.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Física de Materiales CSIC-UPV/EHU, Materials Physics Center MPC, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 5, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain. schwartz@ehu.es
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Riedel
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arinero
authors.forename: Ph
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tordjeman
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alegría
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colmenero