Improvement of thermally induced bending of cantilevers used for atomic force microscopy

Abstract

AbstractThe microfabricated silicon nitride cantilevers that are used for atomic force microscopy (AFM) are, unfortunately, sensitive thermometers. They bend with ambient temperature changes and those due to laser heating. The bend can result in displacements for the silicon nitride cantilevers of an order several hundred nanometers at the tip of the cantilever. If, however, the silicon nitride cantilevers are treated by removing the metallization and annealing at 500°C for 30 min, these displacements can be reduced by one or two orders of magnitude. Silicon cantilevers have approximately a one order of magnitude smaller drift than silicon nitride cantilevers as received from vendors and are improved less by treatment.