ARROW Silicon-afm-probes

ARROW™
SILICON AFM PROBES

Optimized positioning through maximized tip visibility

Arrow™ Top View

Arrow™ Front View

Arrow™ Side View

 

General

  • SPM and AFM probe for high resolution imaging
  • fits to all well-known commercial SPMs and AFMs
  • monolithic design of single crystal silicon support chip, cantilever and tip

Material Features

  • highly doped, single crystal silicon (resistivity 0.01–0.025 Ωcm)
  • no intrinsic stress and absolutely straight cantilevers
  • chemically inert silicon for application in fluids or electrochemical cells

Cantilever

  • rectangular cantilever with triangular free end
  • easy positioning of tip on the area of interest due to the Arrow™ shape
  • consistent distance between tip and cantilever end
  • trapezoidal cross section with wide backside for easy laser adjustment

Support Chip

  • dimensions of the support chip are very reproducible (1.6 mm x 3.4 mm x 0.3 mm)
  • etched corners of the support chip avoid contact between the support chip and the sample

Tip

  • tip height 10–15 µm and radius of curvature typically < 10 nm (< 15 nm guaranteed)
  • macroscopic half-cone angles:
    - 30° to 35° seen along the cantilever axis
    - 20° to 25° seen from the side

Package Sizes

  • packages of 10, 20 or 50 scanning probes
  • full wafer of at least 380 scanning probes

AVAILABLE COATINGS

Reflex Coating

  • 30 nm thick aluminum coating
    on the backside of the cantilever
  • enhances reflectance of the
    laser beam by a factor of 2.5

PtIr5 Coating

  • 25 nm thick double layer of chromium and platinum iridium5 on both sides of the scanning probe
  • stress-compensated and wear resistant
  • enhances reflectance of the laser beam by a factor of 2
  • allows electrical measuerements

Other coatings for standard SPM and AFM probes available on request

ARROW™ Ultra High Frequency Scanning Probes (UHF)
ARROW™ Tipless Cantilevers and Cantilever Arrays (TL)

Arrow™ UHF

Arrow™ UHF 3D-View

 

Arrow™ UHF

The Arrow™ UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is a silicon SPM and AFM probe with a tetrahedral tip and a triangular cantilever capable of resonating with an ultra high frequency of up to 2.0 MHz.

 

The Arrow™ UHF cantilever has a length of 35 µm and a base width of 42 µm.
Cantilever thicknesses between 0.6 and 1.0 µm are possible.The tip height is 3 µm.

 

On request, specific cantilever thicknesses are selected within very narrow tolerances for an extra selection fee.

Arrow™ TL (Tipless Cantilevers for Special Applications)

The Arrow™ TL SPM and AFM probes have tipless cantilevers for special applications.
They can for example be used for attaching spheres and other objects to the free end of the cantilever, or for functionalizing and sensing applications.

 

All scanning probes of the Arrow™ series are made from monolithic silicon which is highly doped to dissipate static charge and are chemically inert.

 

The products of the ArrowTM tipless series (ArrowTM TL) are available with either 1 cantilever or with cantilever arrays consisting of 2 or 8 rectangular cantilevers with a triangular free end.
The Arrow™ TL are optionally available with a front side coating of 5 nm titanium / 30 nm gold.

Cantilever Data Value Range
Thickness 1.0 µm 0.5 - 2.5 µm
Width (rectangular part) 100 µm 95 - 105 µm
Length 500 µm 495 - 505 µm
Force Constant 0.03 N/m 0.04 - 0.54 N/m
Resonance Frequency 6 kHz 3 - 14 kHz
 

Arrow™ TL1
Tipless cantilever,
single cantilever beam on silicon support chip

Arrow™ TL2
Tipless cantilever array,
two cantilever beams on single crystal silicon support chip

Arrow™ TL8
Tipless cantilever array, eight
cantilever beams on a single crystal silicon support chip