title: Electrically conducting, ultra-sharp, high aspect-ratio probes for AFM fabricated by electron-beam-induced deposition of platinum.
abstract: We report on the fabrication of electrically conducting, ultra-sharp, high-aspect ratio probes for atomic force microscopy by electron-beam-induced deposition of platinum. Probes of 4.0 ±1.0 nm radius-of-curvature are routinely produced with high repeatability and near-100% yield. Contact-mode topographical imaging of the granular nature of a sputtered gold surface is used to assess the imaging performance of the probes, and the derived power spectral density plots are used to quantify the enhanced sensitivity as a function of spatial frequency. The ability of the probes to reproduce high aspect-ratio features is illustrated by imaging a close-packed array of nanospheres. The electrical resistance of the probes is measured to be of order 100 kΩ.
authors.affiliation: Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom. Electronic address: jason.brown@physics.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kocher
authors.forename: Chandra S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Ramanujan
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Torimitsu
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004583:Electrons; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010984:Platinum; D006046:Gold
keywords: AFM probes; Conducting AFM; Electron-beam-induced deposition