Progress of functionalized atomic force microscopy in the study of the properties of nanometric dielectric materials

The rapid development of the electrical and electronic industry requires components with miniaturization, flexibility, and intelligence. As an important material for the preparation of electronic components, dielectric materials need to have excellent dielectric properties such as high breakdown electric field, high energy storage density and low dielectric loss. Due to the lack of ultra-high resolution characterization tools, the research on the improvement of dielectric material properties has remained at the macroscopic level in the past. The invention of atomic force microscopy, a measurement instrument with nanoscale high resolution, has shown unique advantages in the study of nanodielectrics, and the birth of functional atomic force microscopy has made important contributions to characterize 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 in 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.