Wear-resistance comparison of carbon nanotubes and conventional silicon-probes for atomic force microscopy

Abstract

In this paper, a comparison of the wear characteristics of carbon nanotube (CNT) probe and conventional silicon atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe in tapping mode by continuous scanning on a hard surface is reported. The results indicated that the conventional silicon probe wears greatly and its corresponding image resolution decreases greatly, and the scanned sample also wore, while the CNT probe and scanned sample showed no wear and the resolution remained unchanged. Therefore, the CNT probe has longer lifetime than the conventional probe and hence it is an ideal probe for AFM.