Ru. Maheswari et al., CONTROL OF APEX SHAPE OF THE FIBER PROBE EMPLOYED IN PHOTON SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE BY A MULTISTEP ETCHING METHOD, Journal of lightwave technology, 13(12), 1995, pp. 2308-2313
In this paper, we discuss about the control of the shape of the very a
pex of a sharpened fiber probe used in photon scanning tunneling micro
scope (PSTM) by means of a method based on selective chemical etching,
Under ambient conditions, through a multistep etching method proposed
here, fiber probes with a flattened apex having a diameter of around
15-20 nm could be produced with high reproducibility. It has also been
discovered that, during the etching process, the shape of the apex of
the probe takes a rounded or a flattened shape with respect to the et
ching time in an almost cyclic fashion and such a phenomenon could hel
p in understanding the mechanism of the etching process. These kind of
probes with hat apex after metal coating are suitable for the fabrica
tion of apertured probes used in PSTM and also for super tips which ha
ve a promising future as nanosensors in the fields of biology and bioc
hemistry.