Progress of application of functional atomic force microscopy in study of nanodielectric material properties

The rapid development of the electrical and electronic industry requires components with miniaturization, flexibility, and intelligence. Dielectric materials, as important materials for the preparation of electronic components, are required to have excellent dielectric properties such as high breakdown electric field, high energy storage density and low dielectric loss. Owing to the lack of ultra-high resolution characterization tools, the research on the improvement of dielectric material properties stopped at a macroscopic level in the past. Atomic force microscopy, a measurement instrument which possesses a nanoscale high resolution, shows unique advantages in the study of nanodielectrics, and the advent of functional atomic force microscopy has made important contributions to characterization of the electrical, optical, and mechanical properties of nano-dielectric micro-regions. In this paper, we review the progress of atomic force microscopy, electrostatic force microscopy, Kelvin probe force microscopy, piezoelectric response force microscopy and atomic microscopy-infrared spectroscopy in the study of nanodielectric applications. Firstly, their structures and principles are introduced; secondly, their recent research progress of studying the microscopic morphology, interfacial structure, domain behavior and charge distribution in the nanometer region of dielectric materials is presented, and finally, the problems in the existing research and possible future research directions are discussed.