Simultaneous atomic force microscopy measurement of topography and contact resistance of metal films and carbon nanotubes

We present a quartz tuning-fork-based atomic force microscopy(AFM) setup that is capable of mapping the surfacecontact resistance while scanning topography. The tuning-fork setup allows us to use etched Pt/Ir tips, which have higher durability and better conductivity than probes used in earlier AFM conductance measurements. The performance of the method is demonstrated with contact resistance measurements of gold lines on silicon dioxide and carbon nanotubes on graphite.