Sensitivity analysis of the electrostatic interaction between the atomic force microscopy probe and a thin dielectric film with 3D-localized charge cloud

Menouar Azib (1, 2) , Fulbert Baudoin (3) , Nicolas Binaud (2) , Christina Villeneuve-Faure (3) , G. Teyssedre (3) , Florian Bugarin (2) , Stéphane Segonds (2)

1 LAPLACE - LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie
2 ICA - Institut Clément Ader
3 LAPLACE-DSF - Diélectriques Solides et Fiabilité

Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that the Electrostatic Force Distance Curve (EFDC) can be used for space charge probing in thin dielectric layers. Experiments highlight that this method seems to be sensitive to charge localization. However, the relative contributions of charge distribution parameters (density, lateral/in-depth spreading) remain unknown. The aim of this paper is to determine the contribution of each charge distribution parameters to EFDC. To reach this aim, we have developed an electrostatic and an electromechanical model to simulate EFDC over a charge cloud trapped in a thin dielectric layer. Hence, the EFDC sensitivity to charge localization could be investigated through the shape parameters of the charge cloud and by extracting the respective contributions from the atomic force microscopy tip and the cantilever.

Mots clés: Cantilever; Electrical properties and parameters; Elastic modulus; Atomic force microscopy; Partial differential equations; Finite-element analysis; Software engineering; Thin films

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Menouar Azib, Fulbert Baudoin, Nicolas Binaud, Christina Villeneuve-Faure, G. Teyssedre, et al.. Sensitivity analysis of the electrostatic interaction between the atomic force microscopy probe and a thin dielectric film with 3D-localized charge cloud. Journal of Applied Physics, 2019, 125, pp.045305. ⟨10.1063/1.5060655⟩. ⟨hal-02005757⟩