Comparison of thermal and piezoresistive sensing approaches for atomic force microscopy topography measurements

The operation of thermal and piezoelectric cantilevers for sensing approaches was investigated using atomic force microscopy topography measurements. A resistor in the cantilever was electrically biased such that cantilever was heated above ambient temperature in thermal detection approach for thermomechanical data storage. The piezoelectric cantilevers were made more sensitive by increasing the cantilever thickness, decreasing the cantilever length, or operating cantilever at a higher bias voltage. The results show that thermal cantilevers become more sensitive as they are made thinner, and also have reduced spring constant, which would significantly increase force resolution over piezoelectric cantilevers.