An experimental study of the contact mode AFM scanning capability of polyimide cantilever probes

This paper presents a preliminary exploration of high-speed contact mode performed with a polyimide probe. The probe is batch micromachined by a lithographic manufacturing process. It offers a spring constant of <0.1N/m, a resonance frequency of about 50k Hz, and a tip diameter of 50-100 nm. The probe is particularly suitable for scanning soft specimens such as biological and polymeric samples. Topographical contact mode imaging at high scanning rates of 48 Hz (1.47 mm/s) has been demonstrated, detecting features <100 nm over a 15 microm scan, yielding >7 bit resolution at 48 Hz. Scanning rates of 16 Hz (0.5mm/s) have been demonstrated for lateral force imaging with spatial resolution of 100 nm over a 15 microm scan, which translates into >7 bit resolution at 16 Hz. These results suggest that the probe can be used in high throughput applications.