Happy New Year!

Dear Customer,

We are pleased to inaugurate a dedicated website for Surface Science related products & applications: MicroprobeAnalysis.com.

Since 1988 one of our key focuses has been on Surface Science Techniques, with as major partner CAMECA, the recognized world leader in its class of technologies, with over 1'000 instruments installed worldwide.

A new product line we are adding to this field of activity are Kelvin Probes. These probes address work function and surface potential measurements.

In coordination with Elsevier's Thin Solid Films scientific publication, a 'webinar' will be held in February. It is intended to be an educational seminar over the internet which will be led by Prof. Iain Baikie (Scotland); the expert panel will introduce the principle of the Kelvin Probe technique, explain how it works, the information it provides and how this can be interpreted through the use of examples and typical applications in Materials Science and Surface Analysis. The advantages of the Kelvin Probe technique will be discussed followed by a question and answer session. If you are interested to attend the webinar, please drop us an email so we send you all relevant details to register. Registration is free!

The Kelvin Probe

Kelvin Probes address work function and surface potential measurements. This is a non-contact, non-destructive vibrating capacitor device used to measure the work function difference, or for non-metals, the surface potential, between a conducting specimen and a vibrating tip.

The Kelvin Probe is an extremely sensitive analytical tool measuring changes in contact potential difference (cpd) between a reference material and a sample to less than 0.001 V. The essence of the cpd is the difference in Fermi-levels (in the simple case of a metal this is the energy of the most energetic electron within the outer electron band with respect to the vacuum level, eVac). If we assume that the reference material Fermi-level is unchanged during the measurement (impractical situations this may have to be determined via control experiments), then the changes in contact potential difference of the Kelvin 'Junction' can be wholly ascribed to changes occurring at the sample surface.

The new designs can map surface properties with resolution in the 50 nm range. The Kelvin Probe is a non-invasive technique, yet extremely sensitive to changes in the top-most atomic layers, such as those caused by deposition, absorption, corrosion and atomic displacement. In some cases it can detect less than one-thousandth of an absorbed layer.

There are several dozen research area's the Kelvin Probe can be applied to and the list is constantly expanding. Some examples include: Adsorption, Biotechnology, Charge Analysis, Coatings, Corrosion, Display Technology, Fermi-level Mapping, Fuel Cells, Medical Devices, MEMS, Nanotechnology, OLEDS, Pyroelectricity, Semiconductors, Solar Cells, Surface Contamination, Surface Chemistry and Surface Photovoltage.

>>> Download brochure of pictured UHV020 probe

Ambient Kelvin Probe System

This entry-level Kelvin Probe system is easy to set up. It is designed to give drift-free measurements and rejects stray capacitance effects that plague other designs. Rapid System Set-up, tutorials and Tip calibration included - Everything the investigator needs!

The System Features:

• Ambient probe head unit with integral amplifier.
• Standard Tip 2 mm diameter (50 µm diameter option).
• Optical Grade Base, System Mounts with 25.5 mm Manual Translator.
• Dedicated Dell PC with Software and Data Acquisition System pre-installed.
• Vertical Probe Mount as Standard.
• Spare Tip, Cables, Manual, Getting Started Tutorials.
• Work Function resolution 1-3 meV with Standard Tip.
• Sample Holder with Gold Reference Sample.
• Faraday Cage.
• Export of Data to Excel Compatible Spreadsheets.
• Options include Surface Photovoltage Package, Humidity Chamber, Spare tip, gold-coated Tips, (X,Y,Z) manual translator, etc.
• Transparent Upgrade option to SKP, SKP5050.

>>> Download the brochure