TY - JOUR
T1 - Simulation-aided design and fabrication of nanoprobes for scanning probe microscopy
AU - Liu, Bernard Haochih
AU - Chang, Day Bin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the National Science Council (Taiwan, ROC) through Grant 98-2221-E-006-070- . The authors thank for the cooperation of Center for Micro/Nano Science and Technology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. The authors are also grateful to the National Center for High-performance Computing for computer time and facilities. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their constructive comments of an earlier version of this paper.
PY - 2011/4
Y1 - 2011/4
N2 - We proposed and demonstrated a flexible and effective method to design and fabricate scanning probes for atomic force microscopy applications. Computer simulations were adopted to evaluate design specifications and desired performance of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes; the fabrication processes were guided by feedback from simulation results. Through design-simulation-fabrication iterations, tipless cantilevers and tapping mode probes were successfully made with errors as low as 2% in designed resonant frequencies. For tapping mode probes, the probe tip apex achieved a 10 nm radius of curvature without additional sharpening steps; tilt-compensated probes were also fabricated for better scanning performance. This method provides AFM users improved probe quality and practical guidelines for customized probes, which can support the development of novel scanning probe microscopy (SPM) applications.
AB - We proposed and demonstrated a flexible and effective method to design and fabricate scanning probes for atomic force microscopy applications. Computer simulations were adopted to evaluate design specifications and desired performance of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes; the fabrication processes were guided by feedback from simulation results. Through design-simulation-fabrication iterations, tipless cantilevers and tapping mode probes were successfully made with errors as low as 2% in designed resonant frequencies. For tapping mode probes, the probe tip apex achieved a 10 nm radius of curvature without additional sharpening steps; tilt-compensated probes were also fabricated for better scanning performance. This method provides AFM users improved probe quality and practical guidelines for customized probes, which can support the development of novel scanning probe microscopy (SPM) applications.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ultramic.2011.01.025
DO - 10.1016/j.ultramic.2011.01.025
M3 - Article
C2 - 21396528
AN - SCOPUS:79551686099
SN - 0304-3991
VL - 111
SP - 337
EP - 341
JO - Ultramicroscopy
JF - Ultramicroscopy
IS - 5
ER -