Nanofabrication of high performance AFM cantilevers

描述(由申请人提供)：本提案的长期目标 是为了开发高性能原子力显微镜(AFM)悬臂 在生物医学研究中的应用。原子力显微镜正在成为一种强大的工具 生物医学研究，并发现了包括DNA成像在内的应用， 测量薄膜上的局部表面静电，测绘机械 细胞的性质和单分子蛋白质力学。它也是 被认为是纳米技术的核心使能技术。限制之一 目前原子力显微镜中的元件是悬臂梁。悬臂的性能是 主要特征是弹簧常数和共振的结合 频率我们建议开发具有共振频率的新型悬臂梁 对于弹簧常数为0.1的悬臂梁，在溶液中的范围为1-100 MHz N/m。这种共振频率大约为一到三个数量级 比目前市面上最好的悬臂要好。新的 悬臂梁将由两种独立的方法建造，聚焦离子束 常规硅或氮化硅悬臂梁和电子的铣削 束流沉积。腿厚为100 nm或更小的悬臂梁将 100纳米或更小的宽度将使用来自材料的离子束在 传统悬臂梁的末端，产生一种具有 大悬臂自由端的小的高性能悬臂。类似 复合悬臂梁将由电子束沉积塑料制成 就像小悬臂形状的纳米结构。在其他方面， 这些新的悬臂将允许更快的扫描，增加时间 测力分辨率，通过降低测量灵敏度来提高测量灵敏度 悬臂噪音，并通过减少悬臂弹簧来提高灵敏度 常量。为了使用这些新的悬臂，我们建议建造一个原子力显微镜头部 配有适当的光学元件，可与非常小的悬臂和位置传感器配合使用 具有检测带宽至少为100 MHz的数据采集系统。 这个探测器将被用来表征新的 悬臂。此外，我们还将测试新悬臂的性能 在静电映射实验中，我们希望提高灵敏度和 我们希望发现新的动力学脂质的双层融合实验 融合过程中的重排。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this proposal is to develop high performance atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers for application to biomedical research. The AFM is emerging as a powerful tool for biomedical research, and has found applications that include imaging of DNA, measuring local surface electrostatics on membranes, mapping mechanical properties of cells and single molecule protein mechanics. It is also considered a central enabling technology in nanotechnology. One of the limiting elements in current AFMs is the cantilever. The performance of a cantilever is primarily characterized by a combination of spring constant and resonance frequency. We propose to develop new cantilevers with resonance frequencies in the range 1-100 MHz in solution, for cantilevers with a spring constant of 0.1 N/m. This resonance frequency is approximately one to three orders of magnitude better than the best cantilevers that are currently available. The new cantilevers will be constructed by two independent methods, focused ion beam milling of conventional silicon or silicon nitride cantilevers and electron beam deposition. Cantilevers with leg a thickness of 100 nm or less will and widths of 100 nm or less will be milled using an ion beam from the material at the end of a conventional cantilever, producing a compound cantilever with a small high performance cantilever at the free end of the larger one. Similar compound cantilevers will be constructed by electron beam deposition plastic like nanostructures in the shape of small cantilevers. Among other things, these new cantilevers will allow faster scanning, increase the temporal resolution of force measurement, improve measurement sensitivity by reducing cantilever noise, and improve sensitivity by reducing cantilever spring constant. To use these new cantilevers, we propose to construct an AFM head with appropriate optics to work with very small cantilevers and position sensor with data acquisition system with a detection bandwidth of at least 100 MHz. This detector will be used to characterize physical properties of the new cantilevers. In addition, we will test the performance of the new cantilevers in electrostatic mapping experiments where we expect improve sensitivity and a bilayer fusion experiment in which we expect to uncover new dynamics lipid rearrangement during fusion.