Atomic force microscope integrated with a scanning electron microscope for correlative nanofabrication and microscopy

Abstract

More than 40 years after its invention, the atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be integrated with scanning electron microscope (SEM) instruments as an increasingly capable and productive characterization tool with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. The authors have designed and developed an AFM instrument capable to be integrated into any SEM or in a combination of SEM with a focused ion-beam (FIB) tool. The combination of two or more different types of techniques like SEM, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and AFM is called correlative microscopy because analytical information from the same place of the sample can be obtained and correlated. For the first time, they introduced to the SEM/FIB tool correlative nanofabrication methods like field-emission scanning probe lithography, tip-based electron beam induced deposition, and nanomachining. The combination of all these methods provides a completely new nanotechnology instrument, which should be seen as a tool for correlative nanofabrication and microscopy. Thus, it provides for the first time the capabilities of a stand-alone instrument with the capabilities of nondestructive three-dimensional tip-based metrology and nanofabrication into the combined SEM/FIB tool. In this article, the authors describe all these methods in detail and present a brief example of the results obtained. They demonstrate that the self-sensing, self-actuating cantilevers (called active cantilevers) equipped with Diamond tip are a versatile toolkit for fast imaging and emerging nanofabrication. The AFM integrated into SEM is using active cantilevers that can characterize and generate nanostructures all in situ without the need to break-vacuum or contaminate the sample.