Direct-write nanoscale printing of nanogranular tunnelling strain sensors for sub-micrometre cantilevers.
The sensitivity and detection speed of cantilever-based mechanical sensors increases drastically through size reduction. The need for such increased performance for high-speed nanocharacterization and bio-sensing, drives their sub-micrometre miniaturization in a variety of research fields. However, existing detection methods of the cantilever motion do not scale down easily, prohibiting further increase in the sensitivity and detection speed. Here we report a nanomechanical sensor readout based on electron co-tunnelling through a nanogranular metal. The sensors can be deposited with lateral dimensions down to tens of nm, allowing the readout of nanoscale cantilevers without constraints on their size, geometry or material. By modifying the inter-granular tunnel-coupling strength, the sensors' conductivity can be tuned by up to four orders of magnitude, to optimize their performance. We show that the nanoscale printed sensors are functional on 500 nm wide cantilevers and that their sensitivity is suited even for demanding applications such as atomic force microscopy.
Laboratory for Bio- and Nano-Instrumentation, Interfaculty Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Batiment BM 3109 Station 17, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Maja
M
Dukic
Physikalisches Institut, Max-von-Laue-Street 1, Goethe-Universität, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Marcel
M
Winhold
Physikalisches Institut, Max-von-Laue-Street 1, Goethe-Universität, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|NanoScale Systems, Nanoss GmbH, Robert-Bosch-Street 7, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany.
Christian H
CH
Schwalb
Laboratory for Bio- and Nano-Instrumentation, Interfaculty Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Batiment BM 3109 Station 17, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Jonathan D
JD
Adams
AMG Technology Ltd., Microelectronica Industrial Zone, 2140 Botevgrad,Bulgaria.
Vladimir
V
Stavrov
Physikalisches Institut, Max-von-Laue-Street 1, Goethe-Universität, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Michael
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7415-465X
M
Huth
Laboratory for Bio- and Nano-Instrumentation, Interfaculty Institute of Bioengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Batiment BM 3109 Station 17, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Georg E
GE
Fantner
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