Si nano-particle characterization by atomic force microscopy and electronic beam techniques

Although nano-particles have attracted extensive studies in material science and technology for decades, how to measure the particle size efficiently and conveniently still remains to be a problem unsolved. In this paper, Si nano-particles prepared by annealing a very thin amorphous Si layer were inspected by atomic force microscopy (AFM) as well as SEM and TEM e-beam techniques. Results extracted from AFM images are larger than those from e-beam imaging techniques mainly due to AFM probe tip convolution effect. In order to correct the AFM tip/probe induced topography convolutions, strategy and approaches were explored by constructing a suitable tip geometry model and then applied to the different scenarios when particle size is larger or close to the tip radius. The conclusions are consequently applied to the current study and the corrected AFM results are satisfying.