Light polarization and intensity behaviour in aperture cantilevers with carbon tip created by focused ion beam

Abstract

Modern atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques and their combination with other methods give us a possibility to investigate the same samples from the new side at nano-scale. One of very promising combinations is polarization near field microscopy integrated into AFM tool. It allows one to make topography imaging by standard AFM tool and optical magnetic structure imaging by magneto-optical method simultaneously. Moreover, this combination gives synergy effect on both methods by improving their weak sides: elimination of magnetic influence of magnetic force microscopy on the sample, on the one hand, and overcoming the diffraction limit of the magneto-optical microscopy, on another hand. The cantilevers play a very important role in this combination of the methods since they interact with the surface and allow focusing the laser beam to the sample in near field mode. The geometry and other parameters of cantilevers are determined as a result of the combined methods implementation. Authors investigate the new type of carbon-tips aperture cantilevers for AFM and high resolution magneto-optical combination.