Sub-micrometer thermal physics - An overview on SThM techniques

The historical development and present state of the art of scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) - temperature profiling, thermography and other measurements of thermal parameters - in the sub-mu m range and the relevant thermal sensors are reviewed. The paper proposes a classification scheme for the various experimental arrangements of STM and AFM based SThM's. Limitations of the SThM technique and future prospects are briefly discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.