Scanning thermal atomic force microscopy of MoS$_{2}$

The morphology of MoS$_{2}$ flakes mechanically exfoliated onto a SiO$_{2}$ substrate was studied using scanning thermal atomic force microscopy. In the microscopy, the MoS$_{2}$ flake, protruded on a substrate at 300K, subsided by a few nm at 550K. However, as we lowered the substrate temperature to room temperature, the flake protruded again. This is due to the different convectional heat loss on between MoS$_{2}$ and SiO$_{2}$ at 550K. Thermal properties of MoS$_{2}$ layer such as cross plane heat conduction and convectional heat loss will be discussed further in this presentation.