Agilent Technologies Furthers Investigative Potential of Scanning Microwave Microscopy via Enhanced EMPro Software

Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced a new application available in the latest version of its EMPro modeling software. This new application lets researchers perform electromagnetic simulations to help interpret the experiments they do using scanning microwave microscopy.

SMM is an Agilent-exclusive technique that combines the electromagnetic measurements of a microwave vector network analyzer with the nanometer resolution and Angstrom-scale positioning of an atomic force microscope.

"When used in conjunction with scanning microwave microscopy, EMPro software can lead to a better understanding of a sample's underlying electromagnetic field distribution and corresponding physical properties such as complex impedance, permittivity and permeability," said Bill Volk, vice president, Nano Scale Sciences Division at Agilent.

Scanning microwave microscopy, which is fully compatible with Agilent's high-precision 5420, 5500 and 5600LS AFM systems, measures reflection-scattering parameters and corresponding electric properties of materials at the nanoscale in the frequency range of 1 to 20 GHz.

EMPro software complements SMM analysis software and permits more detailed investigations regarding 3-D sample geometry, AFM tip diameter and shaft angle, and measurement frequency. Advanced SMM imaging modes and tip-sample retraction curves can also be modeled and investigated in more detail using EMPro.

SMM-enabled experiments result in calibrated complex impedance data, including capacitance and resistance images with resolution down to 10 nm. Users can perform measurements on a wide range of samples, spanning semiconductor technology, materials science, and the life sciences.