Quantitative scanning thermal microscopy using double scan technique

Although scanning thermal microscope has shown the highest spatial resolution in local temperature and thermophysical property measurement, its usefulness has been severely limited due to difficulties in quantitative measurement. We propose a double scan technique that measures temperature only from the heat transfer through the tip-sample contact by the subtraction of the signal due to the heat transfer through the air. A rigorous theoretical model for this technique is derived. The effectiveness of the double scan technique in quantitative temperature measurement is demonstrated experimentally.