Micromachined Si3N4-Tip on Cantilever for Parallel SFM and NSOM Applications

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Micromachining of a nanoscale Si_(3)N_(4) tip for near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and scanning force microscopy(SFM) has been described. The tapered optical metal-coated fiber is generally used to provide a sub-wavelength sized aperture on tip. Several micromachining methods have been performed in order to have a metal aperture with radius less than λ/2. Apertures provided with less than λ/2 and hollow tips would provide a suitable probe for both NSOM and SFM. A Si_(3)N_(4) tip coated with thin metal film will meet these requirements. The Si tip have been initially fabricated using reactive ion etching (RIE). The SiO_(2) etch masks with 10㎛ and 0.5㎛ were patterned followed by Si etching. The etched Si post was at least 3 ㎛ tall and the radius of the tip was found to be 30nm and ∼10nm depending on the fabrication methods. A Si_(3)N_(4) thin film was deposited on the fabricated Si-tip using a low pressure chemical vapor deposition technique in order to provide a capability for atomic force microscope. A Cr metal film was deposited using thermal evaporator. The thick photoresist film was coated using two-stage methods in order to cover the tall 5㎛ tip. The PR film was carefully etched to have a metal aperture size with less than λ/2.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Fabrication Procedures
• 3. Results and discussion
• Acknowledgments
• References