An experimental study of the contact mode AFM scanning capability of polyimide cantilever probes

This paper presents a preliminary exploration of high-speed contact mode performed with a polyimide probe. The probe is batch micromachined by a lithographic manufacturing process. It offers a spring constant of <0.1 N/m, a resonance frequency of about 50 kHz, and a tip diameter of 50–100 nm. The probe is particularly suitable for scanning soft specimens such as biological and polymeric samples. Topographical contact mode imaging at high scanning rates of 48 Hz (1.47 mm/s) has been demonstrated, detecting features <100 nm over a 15 μm scan, yielding >7 bit resolution at 48 Hz. Scanning rates of 16 Hz (0.5 mm/s) have been demonstrated for lateral force imaging with spatial resolution of 100 nm over a 15 μm scan, which translates into >7 bit resolution at 16 Hz. These results suggest that the probe can be used in high throughput applications.