Monitoring Fast Thermal Dynamics at the Nanoscale through Frequency Domain Photoinduced Force Microscopy

In illuminated tip–sample junctions, the absorption of light by the sample is accompanied by local heating and subsequent thermal expansion of the material. In photoinduced force microscopy (PiFM) experiments, thermal expansion is expected to affect the measured photoinduced force through the thermally modulated van der Waals force. Evidence for such thermal contributions in PiFM measurements has been demonstrated in the mid-infrared range,...