Electrical characterization of ZnO ceramics by scanning tunneling spectroscopy and beam-induced current in the scanning tunneling microscope

Abstract

A correlative study of the electrically active grain boundary structure of ZnO polycrystals has been carried out using a scanning electron microscope/scanning tunneling microscope (SEM/STM) combined instrument. Current imaging tunneling spectroscopy (CITS) measurements reveal reduced surface band gaps, as compared with grain interiors, at the charged boundaries imaged by SEM-based remote electron beam induced current (REBIC). ZnO grain boundaries were also imaged in the STM-REBIC mode with a resolution of up to 20 nm. The contrast differences observed in the SEM-REBIC and STM-REBIC images are discussed in terms of the different experimental conditions used in both techniques.