Oberservation of thermal discharge in nanopatterned electrets by Kelvin-Probe-Microscopy

This work described a new AFM-based method for measuring thermal discharges in nano-scale electrets. A discharge characteristic for heated PMMA thin films could be generated from the data, showing temperature dependent peaks. Furthermore we demonstrated that the charging temperature has a large effect on the charge storage mechanisms of these PMMA thin films. To increase the resolution of KPFM measurements additional experiments will be performed applying tips with a smaller apex. Further we will study other polymer thin film electrets, such as cyclo-polefin-copolymere (COC) or poly(tetrafluoro ethylene) (PTFE). Additionally the geometry of the patterns will be varied in a wide range to investigate the relation between shape and charge storage properties.