A multi-resistance wide-range calibration sample for conductive probe atomic force microscopy measurements

Measuring resistances at the nanoscale has attracted recent attention for developing microelectronic components, memory devices, molecular electronics, and two-dimensional materials. Despite the decisive contribution of scanning probe microscopy in imaging resistance and current variations, measurements have remained restricted to qualitative comparisons. Reference resistance calibra-tion samples are key to advancing the research-to-manufacturing process of nanoscale devices and materials through calibrated, reliable, and comparable measurements. No such calibration reference samples have been proposed so far. In this work, we demon-strate the development of a multi-resistance reference sample for calibrating resistance measurements in conductive probe atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) covering the range from 100 omega to 100 G omega. We present a comprehensive protocol for in situ calibration of the whole measurement circuit encompassing the tip, the current sensing device, and the system controller. Furthermore, we show that our developed resistance reference enables the calibration of C-AFM with a combined relative uncertainty (given at one standard deviation) lower than 2.5% over an extended range from 10 k omega to 100 G omega and lower than 1% for a reduced range from 1 M omega to 50 G omega. Our findings break through the long-standing bottleneck in C-AFM measurements, providing a universal means for adopting calibrated resistance measurements at the nanoscale in the industrial and academic research and development sectors.