INTEGRATED OPTICAL DISPLACEMENT SENSORS FOR SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY

摘要

The present invention describes the use of integrated optical waveguide devices on cantilevers acting as displacement sensors for scanning probe microscopes. These displacement sensors include integrated optical waveguide devices such as ring resonators, race-track resonators and grating loaded optical waveguide Michelson interferometers fabricated on a cantilever to measure the displacement of the cantilever tip due to the forces between surface and the tip. Displacement generated stress on the cantilever changes the refractive index of the materials which cause variations in its optical transmission characteristics. The present invention also includes an optical waveguide grating coupler fabricated on the cantilever for the same purpose whose optical transmission characteristics change due to displacement of the cantilever. This invention is suitable for detection of individual cantilevers in one and two dimensional arrays of displacement sensors each of which may also be integrated with actuators for individual control of cantilevers.