FABRICATION OF OPTICAL-FIBER PROBES FOR NANOMETER-SCALE DIMENSIONAL METROLOGY

The fabrication of cylindrical probes having diameters as small as 50 nm is described in this article. The planar endface (advantageously or iented perpendicular to the axis of the cylindrical probe) and sharp 9 0 degrees corners of the end portion of the probe enable accurate meas urement of a feature being scanned, even at sudden jumps in the surfac e. Conical and flaired probes can also be fabricated with variations o f this technique. The fabrication techniques described in this article are simple and inexpensive; only a Teflon beaker, optical fiber, etch ing solution, polymer solution, fiber cleaver, and optical microscope are necessary.