NanoWorld Ultra-Short Cantilevers

NanoWorld Ultra-Short Cantilevers (USC) are now commercially available. During their development phase, these AFM probes were called Ultra-Short New Material Cantilevers (USC-NM).

NanoWorld Ultra-Short Cantilevers (USC) for High-Speed AFM (HS-AFM) combine very small AFM cantilevers made of a quartz-like material which are designed for resonating at frequencies of up to 5 MHz and a very sharp and wear resistant High Density Carbon / Diamond Like Carbon (HDC / DLC) AFM tip.

• especially designed for high speed scanning applications
• cannot be used in all commercial SPMs and AFMs due to the small  dimensions of the AFM cantilevers
• AFM cantilever and AFM tip are supported by a single crystal silicon support chip
• no intrinsic stress and absolutely straight AFM cantilevers

AFM Cantilever
 
• rectangular AFM cantilever with rounded corners at the freestanding end
• AFM cantilever made of quartz-like material

Support Chip

• dimensions of the support chip are very reproducible (3.4 mm x 1.6 mm x 0.3 mm)
• etched and lowered corners of the support chip avoid contact between the  support chip and the sample
• alignment grooves on the back side of the silicon support chip in conjunction with the alignment chip ensure replacement of the probes without major readjustment of the laser beam

AFM Tip

• nanotools® High Density Carbon / Diamond Like Carbon (HDC / DLC) AFM tip
• AFM tip height typically 2.5 μm and radius of curvature typically < 10 nm
• AFM tip aspect ratio typically 5:1 and tilt compensation of 8°

Gold Reflex Coating

• 20/30 nm thick gold reflex coating on both sides of the AFM probe
• enhances reflectance of the laser beam
• AFM tip remains uncoated

In order to cover a wide range of possible applications using High-Speed AFM, six different types of Ultra-Short Cantilevers (USC) have been developed: three types with very high resonance frequencies (1.2 MHz – 5 MHz) and high force constants mainly for dynamic mode applications in air and three types with high resonance frequencies and low force constants (0.15 N/m – 0.6 N/m) mainly for applications in liquid.

USC AFM probes mainly for dynamic mode applications in air

• resonance frequency of 1.2 MHz and higher
• stiffness of 3.0 N/m and higher
• mainly designed for applications in non-contact mode in air but can also be  used for other applications

Type	USC-F5-k30	USC-F2-k3	USC-F1.2-k7.3
Resonance Frequency	5.0 MHz	2.0 MHz	1.2 MHz
Force Constant	30 N/m	3.0 N/m	7.3 N/m
Cantilever length	10 µm	10 µm	20 µm
Cantilever width	5 µm	5 µm	10 µm
Cantilever thickness	0.68 µm	0.28 µm	0.67 µm

USC AFM probes mainly for applications in liquid

• resonance frequency of 1.5 MHz and lower
• stiffness of 0.6 N/m and lower
• mainly designed for applications in liquid but can also be used for applications in air (depending on the application)

Type	USC-F1.5-k0.6	USC-F1.2-k0.15	USC-F0.3-k0.3
Resonance Frequency*	1.5 MHz	1.2 MHz	0.3 MHz
Force Constant	0.6 N/m	0.15 N/m	0.3 N/m
Cantilever length	7 µm	7 µm	20 µm
Cantilever width	3 µm	2 µm	10 µm
Cantilever thickness	0.10 µm	0.08 µm	0.19 µm
*Values in air