Sol-gel derived PZT force sensor for scanning force microscopy

Abstract

Many sensors and actuators made using Pb(Zr, Ti)O 3 (PZT) thin films have been proposed in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), owing to its eminent piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties. A PZT force sensor of scanning force microscopy (SFM) is conceptualized by its piezoelectricity. The fabrication procedure and performance are interpreted in this paper. The force sensor is a cantilever shape with dimensions of 200 × 50 × 4.15 μm. A compact force sensing system of SFM is constructed by using the piezoelectric force sensor. A clear image of 1.0 μm pitch grating is derived by a SFM with a PZT force sensor. The sensitivity of the PZT force sensor is 0.44 fC nm −1. This value is about 3 times the value of the ZnO force sensor. The sensitivity of the SFM is improved when PZT is used as the piezoelectric material for the force sensor, instead of ZnO. It is believed that this PZT force sensor is capable of being applied easily to use in large scale scanning and severe environments such as low temperature and ultrahigh vacuum.