Probe for scanning probe microscope

摘要

A probe for a scanning probe microscope has a cantilever portion and a microscopic probe portion formed of a solid columnar tip at a distal end of the cantilever portion by deposition using an organic gas decomposed by a focused ion beam inside a vacuum chamber. The probe is sufficiently narrow and has high abrasion resistance and rigidity. The tip may be grown to extend from the cantilever portion at an angle shifted by an angle at which the cantilever portion is inclined during scanning of the probe portion across a sample surface, so that the columnar tip is perpendicular to the sample surface during the scanning. The tip may be formed of a conductive material such as tungsten of diamond-like carbon by FIB-CVD.