Mikromechanische Sonde für Rastermikroskope

摘要

The invention addresses the task of designing a universally applicable micromechanical probe for scanning microscopes which will facilitate scanning-microscopic investigations with higher lateral resolution and high measurement speed. The probe comprises a support and connected thereto an extension arm which takes the form of a packet of layers including at least one piezo-layer and several metal layers and at its free end carries a microprobe tip. The multiple-layer extension arm combines the probe functions entailed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning-tunnelling microscopy (STM) and optical near-field microscopy (SNOM) by applying to the piezo-layer(s) an alternating voltage whose frequency matches one of the resonance frequencies of the extension arm, and by providing the extension arm with at least one optical transmission layer which is connected to an optically transparent microprobe tip so as to conduct light. The probe can be used to obtain topological, electrical and optical measured data from surfaces.