A Look inside a Flexible Open-Source Scanning Electrochemical Probe Microscope

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Surface Science
• Microscopy

Background:

• Scanning electrochemical probe microscopy (SEPM) utilizes electrochemical probes to analyze surface and interface properties.
• Existing SEPM instruments vary in probe type and measurable physicochemical properties (e.g., charge transfer, topography).
• A flexible instrument can provide access to a wide range of SEPM techniques like SECM, SICM, and SECCM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail a flexible, open-source SEPM instrument.
• To demonstrate its capability for common and user-defined SEPM methodologies with minimal programming.
• To highlight the advantages of FPGA architecture in electrochemical instrumentation.

Main Methods:

• Development of a flexible open-source SEPM instrument.
• Utilization of a field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based data acquisition card.
• Implementation of common SEPM operation modes and hyphenated techniques using software and hardware descriptions.

Main Results:

• The described instrument facilitates common and widely applicable SEPM techniques and experimenter-defined methodologies.
• FPGA architecture is shown to be beneficial for electrochemical instrumentation.
• Examples illustrate the implementation of SEPM modes and custom scanning protocols.

Conclusions:

• The open-source SEPM instrument offers widespread access to SEPM techniques.
• The instrument design and FPGA architecture simplify complex SEPM experiments.
• This work serves as a tutorial for both expert and novice SEPM users, encouraging instrument development and optimization.