FABRICATION OF CANTILEVER WITH ULTRASHARP AND HIGH-ASPECT-RATIO STYLUS FOR SCANNING MAXWELL-STRESS MICROSCOPY

A cantilever with an ultrasharp and high-aspect-ratio stylus las made by using a directly bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. The stylus and cantilever were made of 8-mu m-thick Si film and 2-mu m-thick SiO2 film of SOI with sufficient reproducibility. The cantilever is 100 mu m in length, 20 mu m in width and 1.6 mu m in thickness, and the stylus, 7 mu m in height with an aspect ratio exceeding 2. The apex of the stylus is about 5 nm in. radius of curvature. The present cantilever was applied to scanning Maxwell-stress microscopy (SMM), and spatial resolution of about 10 nm Nas achieved in surface potential images of the metal surface, which was significantly better than that obtained with a commercially available conventional cantilever. The fabrication sequence, mechanical properties of the cantilever and results of SMM measurements are discussed.