High Q Single Crystal Cantilevers for Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy

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9422255 Kenny This GOALI proposal deals with the fabrication of high Q, single crystal, cantilevers for magnetic resonance force microscopy. These cantilevers are to be fabricated with microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS) technology at the Stanford NNUN facility. The PI plans to fabricate such cantilevers with the goal of improving the force detection sensitivity of a magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) instrument to where atomic resolution may be possible. Through an increase of the quality factor, Q, from 106 to 108 and operation at low temperatures the PI expects to detect forces as low as 10-18 N/Hz1/2, which is several orders of magnitude more sensitive than present MRFM instruments. This would be a fundamental advance in the ability to detect small forces - in fact, the ability to detect magnetic forces from individual nuclear spins. Thus, this work would permit the realization of a micron-scale magnetometer with a ferromagnetic particle on the cantilever tip. The cantilever motion would be excited by the torsional coupling between the ferromagnetic particle's magnetic moment and an external oscillating magnetic field. One of the exciting possibilities of this research lies in the possibility of direct imaging of individual biological molecules (i.e. 'molecular' imaging) which aids in the determination of the molecular structure of molecules. STM and AFM techniques permit 2D "surface' imaging, but this technique could open the door to 3D imaging with the same resolution. The GOALI program will be a collaboration between Stanford and IBM Almaden who have demonstrated a prototype nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system. ***