Fabrication of an Electron Beam Deposited AFM Tip and Observation of Submicron Line and Space Pattern

Abstract

An electron beam of the scanning electron microscope was utilized to fabricate a microtip on an atomic force microscope cantilever via electron beam deposition process. This newly developed method makes it possible to prepare a long straight tip less than 0.1 μm in diameter and a few μm in length. The high aspect ratio of these tips was found to be quite useful for obtaining correct shape of highly corrugated patterns like trenches, which are not accessible by conventional tips.