Abstract: A platinum/Rhodium resistance thermal probe is used as an active device which acts both as a highly localized heat source and as a detector to perform localized differential calorimetry, by thermally inducing and detecting events such as glass transitions, meltings, recystallizations and thermal decomposition within volumes of material estimated at a few &mgr;m3. Furthermore, the probe is used to image variations in thermal conductivity and diffusivity, to perform depth profiling and sub-surface imaging. The maximum depth of the sample that is imaged is controlled by generating and detecting evanescent temperature waves in the sample.

Abstract: A sample and a scanning probe microscope system are used as the detector for an infrared spectrometer to circumvent the diffraction limit of conventional infrared microscopy, and to provide spectroscopic images with a greatly improved spatial resolution, potentially as low as a few tens of nanometers. The beam from an infrared spectrometer is directed at the sample. The sample is heated to the extent that it absorbs infrared radiation. Thus the resulting temperature rise of an individual region depends upon the particular molecular species present, as well as the range of wavelengths of the infrared beam. These individual temperature differences are detected by a miniature thermal probe. The thermal probe is mounted in a scanning thermal microscope. The scanning thermal microscope is then operated used to produce multiple surface and sub-surface images of the sample, such that the image contrast corresponds to variations in either thermal diffusivity, surface topography or chemical composition.

Abstract: A platinum/Rhodium resistance thermal probe is used as an active device which acts both as a highly localized heat source and as a detector to perform localized differential calorimetry, by thermally inducing and detecting events such as glass transitions, meltings, recystallizations and thermal decomposition within volumes of material estimated at a few .mu.m.sup.3. Furthermore, the probe is used to image variations in thermal conductivity and diffusivity, to perform depth profiling and sub-surface imaging. The maximum depth of the sample that is imaged is controlled by generating and detecting evanescent temperature waves in the sample.