Cantilever

About: Cantilever is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 19032 publications have been published within this topic receiving 265886 citations.

Measurement of the Casimir Force between Parallel Metallic Surfaces

Abstract: We report on the measurement of the Casimir force between conducting surfaces in a parallel configuration. The force is exerted between a silicon cantilever coated with chromium and a similar rigid surface and is detected by looking at the shifts induced in the cantilever frequency when the latter is approached. The scaling of the force with the distance between the surfaces was tested in the $0.5--3.0\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ range, and the related force coefficient was determined at the $15%$ precision level.

Quality factors in micron- and submicron-thick cantilevers

Abstract: Micromechanical cantilevers are commonly used for detection of small forces in microelectromechanical sensors (e.g., accelerometers) and in scientific instruments (e.g., atomic force microscopes). A fundamental limit to the detection of small forces is imposed by thermomechanical noise, the mechanical analog of Johnson noise, which is governed by dissipation of mechanical energy. This paper reports on measurements of the mechanical quality factor Q for arrays of silicon-nitride, polysilicon, and single-crystal silicon cantilevers. By studying the dependence of Q on cantilever material, geometry, and surface treatments, significant insight into dissipation mechanisms has been obtained. For submicron-thick cantilevers, Q is found to decrease with decreasing cantilever thickness, indicating surface loss mechanisms. For single-crystal silicon cantilevers, significant increase in room temperature Q is obtained after 700/spl deg/C heat treatment in either N/sub 2/ Or forming gas. At low temperatures, silicon cantilevers exhibit a minimum in Q at approximately 135 K, possibly due to a surface-related relaxation process. Thermoelastic dissipation is not a factor for submicron-thick cantilevers, but is shown to be significant for silicon-nitride cantilevers as thin as 2.3 /spl mu/m.

Atomic resolution with an atomic force microscope using piezoresistive detection

Abstract: A new detection scheme for atomic force microscopy (AFM) is shown to yield atomic resolution images of conducting and nonconducting layered materials. This detection scheme uses a piezoresistive strain sensor embedded in the AFM cantilever. The cantilever is batch fabricated using standard silicon micromachining techniques. The deflection of the cantilever is measured directly from the resistance of the piezoresistive strain sensor without the need for external deflection sensing elements. Using this cantilever we achieved 0.1 Arms vertical resolution in a 10 Hz–1 kHz bandwidth.

Vibrations of free and surface‐coupled atomic force microscope cantilevers: Theory and experiment

Abstract: With an optical interferometer, the free vibration spectra and the local vibration amplitude of four rectangular atomic force microscope cantilevers made of silicon have been examined experimentally in a spectral range of 100 kHz to 10 MHz. A good agreement with the flexural wave theory of elastic beams was found. Coupling to torsional vibrations was also observed. When the sensor tip of the cantilever is in contact with a sample surface the resonances are shifted in frequency and the vibration amplitudes along the cantilever change. A method is presented to calculate this frequency shift using a linear approximation for the tip–sample interaction forces, and the results are compared with the frequency shift calculated from the point‐mass model. The measured resonance frequencies of a surface‐coupled cantilever do not correspond as well to the theoretical ones as in the free case even if the elastic‐beam model is used. The reason for the disagreement is found to be the geometry of the commercial cantileve...