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Updated: Oct 6, 2025

Atomic Force Microscopy Cantilever-Based Nanoindentation: Mechanical Property Measurements at the Nanoscale in Air and Fluid
Published on: December 2, 2022
Stress effect on the resonance properties of single-crystal diamond cantilever resonators for microscopy applications
Xiulin Shen1, Zhenfei Lv2, Kimiyoshi Ichikawa3
1School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, Anhui 232001, China; Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan; School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China.
Abstract:
Micro-cantilever beams have been widely used for surface sensing applications as well as atomic force microscope. However, surface stress appears in cantilever beams due to a variety of factors such as the absorption of molecules, temperature variations, materials imperfectness, and the fabrication process. Single-crystal diamond (SCD) has been regarded as an ideal material for cantilever sensors through the surface effect due to the outstanding mechanical rigidity and chemical inertness. In this paper, the authors report on the SCD cantilever beams fabricated by a smart-cut method with high quality factors up to 14 000 and stress characterization by surface geometry curvature observation and Raman microscopy. Although both surface geometry profile and Raman shift show the existence of surface stress in the SCD cantilever beams, the resonance properties are little influenced and maintain excellent rigidity and high quality. Therefore, the SCD-on-SCD resonator provides a promising platform for high-reliability microscopy applications.

