Investigation the Structure and Property of Two-dimensional Materials Using Scanning Probe Techniques

Scanning probe microscope (SPM) has a very high resolution to study the morphology together with the physical/chemical property. The best advantage is that the physical/chemical property could be visualized by SPM. Normally, the horizontal and vertical resolution can be down to 0.1 nm and 0.01 nm, respectively. Traditional methods of characterization always have the quality and special statement of the sample requirement, for example, the electron microscopy requires that the sample is conductive in scanning electron microscopy or as thin as possible in transmission electron microscopy. Regarding to the device characterization, it usually needs complex fabrication process. Moreover, these methods hardly investigate the property at nanoscale with as many functions as that of SPM, where the local physical/chemical property could be probed effectively. With the development of two-dimensional materials, the growth and property at micro-scale close to clear, however, it is still challenge to further reveal the mechanism at nanoscale, which will guide the further large-scale growth and device construction. In this progress, we reviewed our recent work which demonstrated the use of SPM in the studying of two-dimensional materials, such as reveling the morphology evolution with nanometer or atomic resolution by atomic force microscope (AFM) and friction force microscope (FFM), uncovering the electronic property by Kelvin probe force microscope (KPFM) and electrostatic force microscope (EFM), as well as measuring the transport at nano-device by conductive atomic force microscope (CAFM).