CANTILEVER DEFLECTION SENSOR AND USE THEREOF

摘要

A new method and an apparatus for measuring the deflection of or the force exerted upon a cantilever-type micromechanical element is presented which is based on detecting radiation emitted from the gap between the cantilever (220) and a second surface (230, 231). The radiation, while occurring spontaneously at high frequencies when appropriately biasing the cantilever and the second surface by a voltage, can be enlarged by using external energy sources. The new method and apparatus are also applied to surface investigation, particularly to dopant profiling.