MULTIFUNCTIONAL SNOM AFM PROBE WITH ACCURATELY CONTROLLED LOW SPRING CONSTANT/

A low spring constant optical fiber probe was materialized by etching an optical fiber to decrease the diameter and to sharpen the tip-end w ith HF solution and irradiating a CO2 laser beam to bend the tip. The spring constant of the probe could be accurately controlled and is typ ically 100 times smaller in a 40 mu m diameter probe than that in a co nventional optical fiber probe of 125 mu m diameter. The probe showed good performance in both dynamic and contact mode AFM in air and liqui d. The probe successfully imaged a friction image of Langmuir Blogett films and showed a sensitivity to an electrostatic force as a multi-fu nctional SNOM/AFM probe. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.