Local behavior of complex materials: scanning probes and nano structure

Understanding the behavior of complex materials such as organic self-assembled monolayers, molecular and nano wires, and transition metal oxide thin films, is facilitated by probes of local properties. Recent extensions of scanning probe microscopies that extract electrical potential, capacitance, dielectric constant, electromechanical coupling coefficients and impedance, are described. In most cases, these complex properties are accessed by stimulations and/or response function detection with multiple frequency modulations. Several illustrative examples include determination of the electronic structure of individual defects in a carbon nanotube, ferroelectric domain interactions in oxide thin films, and electric potential of an alkanethiol on metal.