Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Measurements of the contact potential difference between different materials have been performed for the first time using scanning force microscopy. The instrument has a high resolution for both the contact potential difference (better than 0.1 mV) and the lateral dimension (50 nm) and allows the simultaneous imaging of topography and contact potential difference. Images of gold, platinum, and palladium surfaces, taken in air, show a large contrast in the contact potential difference and demonstrate the basic concept.
Nonnenmacher et al. (1991) studied this question.