TY - GEN
T1 - Six-fold improvement in nanotopography sensing via temperature control of a heated atomic force microscope cantilever
AU - Somnath, Suhas
AU - Corbin, Elise A.
AU - King, William Paul
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Heated atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers can be used to thermally sense the nanotopography of a surface. Previous reports show that cantilever nanotopography sensitivity can be increased by either modifying the cantilever design or by increasing the operating temperature of the cantilever. This article describes six-fold improvement to cantilever sensitivity by using control mechanisms to maintain either constant cantilever electrical resistance, cantilever dissipated power, or the voltage across the circuit. Topographical imaging was performed on a 20nm tall silicon calibration grating under each of these control schemes. The topographies obtained by the laser-deflection and the thermal signal corresponding to each control mechanism were compared. The thermal nanotopography sensitivity is improved by as much as 570% by controlling cantilever resistance and 345% by controlling power supply to the cantilever. Overall, the topography sensitivity using heated cantilevers is 500 times greater than that using similarly sized piezoresistive cantilevers.
AB - Heated atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers can be used to thermally sense the nanotopography of a surface. Previous reports show that cantilever nanotopography sensitivity can be increased by either modifying the cantilever design or by increasing the operating temperature of the cantilever. This article describes six-fold improvement to cantilever sensitivity by using control mechanisms to maintain either constant cantilever electrical resistance, cantilever dissipated power, or the voltage across the circuit. Topographical imaging was performed on a 20nm tall silicon calibration grating under each of these control schemes. The topographies obtained by the laser-deflection and the thermal signal corresponding to each control mechanism were compared. The thermal nanotopography sensitivity is improved by as much as 570% by controlling cantilever resistance and 345% by controlling power supply to the cantilever. Overall, the topography sensitivity using heated cantilevers is 500 times greater than that using similarly sized piezoresistive cantilevers.
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U2 - 10.1109/ICSENS.2010.5690947
DO - 10.1109/ICSENS.2010.5690947
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:79951865395
SN - 9781424481682
T3 - Proceedings of IEEE Sensors
SP - 2354
EP - 2357
BT - IEEE Sensors 2010 Conference, SENSORS 2010
T2 - 9th IEEE Sensors Conference 2010, SENSORS 2010
Y2 - 1 November 2010 through 4 November 2010
ER -