High Resolution Scanning Microwave Microscopy for Applications in Liquid Environment

In this work, we demonstrate a hybrid scanning tunneling microscope/near field scanning microwave microscope featuring nanometric resolution in liquid environment. The system performs an ultra-broadband microwave analysis, since the frequency is swept (up to 50 GHz) for each spatial point of the sample under measurement. A conversion in time-domain allows to disentangle near-field and far-field probe-sample interactions. Results are reported for highly oriented pyrolitic graphite immersed in water, and demonstrate microwave nanometric resolution in spite of the presence of the losses induced by the aqueous environment.