Development of scanning Seebeck microscopy for investigation of local thermoelectric properties of organic materials

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25600097
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Thin film/Surface and interfacial physical properties
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: KOBAYASHI Kei 京都大学, 白眉センター, 特定准教授 (40335211)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 原子間力顕微鏡 / 熱電材料 / カンチレバー光熱励振 / 通電加熱カンチレバー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed scanning Seebeck microscopy (SMM) based on the local heating of a cantilever tip. The SMM is capable of local mapping of the thermoelectric properties of the sample. In this project, we focused on the evaluation of the thermoelectric properties of the organic thin films to investigate the relationship between the morphology and thermoelectric properties.
We confirmed that the area under the cantilever tip can be locally heated either by irradiating the cantilever with a focused blue-violet laser beam or the resistive heating of the cantilever by direct current flow to the cantilever. We evaluated the local surface potential of the organic thin films during local heating of the cantilever to investigate the local thermoelectric properties.

Free Research Field

ナノプローブ工学