Towards standardization of conductive atomic force microscopy

This study evaluates the consistency of calibrations across different Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (C-AFM) systems for resistance measurements and investigates the comparability of nanoscale current measurements. The results demonstrate that, irrespective of the C-AFM instrument, current amplifier, or probe type, calibration of the complete measurement system enables accurate resistance measurements over the range from 1 MΩ to 1 TΩ, with standard uncertainties below 1%. For all participants an agreement at the level of 4.8% was found over the same resistance range. Furthermore, calibrated current measurements can be achieved over a wide range from 100 fA to 1 µA, with calibration uncertainties of a few percent at higher currents and approximately 10% to 20% at the lowest current levels. A new method is introduced to determine parasitic resistances within the measurement system, which significantly influence measurements of resistances below 1 MΩ or currents above 10 nA.