Patent ID: 8752211

Claim:
A method of mapping ionic diffusion or electrochemical reactivity comprising: applying an electrical excitation voltage to each of one or more nanoscale volumes of material, wherein said electrical excitation voltage comprises one or more sweeps of a modulated voltage waveform and said modulated voltage waveform comprises cycles of increasing maximal amplitudes over time; measuring an electric current response induced by said electrical excitation voltage at each of said one or more nanoscale volumes of said material; mapping reversal curves of said electric current response induced by said electrical excitation voltage, over a range of voltage which corresponds to said maximal amplitudes, for each of said cycles of increasing maximal amplitudes over time, to determine characteristics of said ionic diffusion or said electrochemical reactivity in said material; determining a spatial grid of locations over said material; applying said electrical excitation voltage to each said one or more nanoscale volumes of said material at each location of said spatial grid, by a scanning probe microscope tip, wherein said electrical excitation voltage comprises said one or more sweeps of said modulated voltage waveform, and said modulated voltage waveform comprises said cycles of increasing maximal amplitudes over time; measuring said electric current response induced by said electrical excitation voltage at each of said one or more nanoscale volumes of said material at each said location of said spatial grid; determining an average reversal curve over said locations of said spatial grid, for each cycle of said modulated voltage waveform; and mapping said average reversal curves over said range of voltage which corresponds to said maximal amplitudes, for each cycle of said modulated voltage waveform.