MONOLITHIC GALLIUM-ARSENIDE CANTILEVER FOR SCANNING NEAR-FIELD MICROSCOPY

In this paper we report on the fabrication of monolithic cantilevers f or scanning probe microscopy (SPM) based on gallium arsenide material. For this purpose the etching properties of (1 0 0) oriented GaAs were studied to develop cantilevers with integrated tip of proper shape an d aspect ratio. Although the mechanical properties of GaAs are similar to those of silicon - the basic material for microstructure technolog y - there are optical and electrical features unique to GaAs and relat ed III/V semiconductors. The aim is to develop novel active and passiv e SPM probes exploiting these properties. Two probes are presented: at first a Schottky diode is integrated into a cantilever tip which can be used as an optical and thermal sensor for scanning near-field optic al microscopy (SNOM) and scanning thermal microscopy (SThM). Furthermo re, a coplanar wave guide probe for high-frequency scanning electron f orce microscopy (HFSEFM) was fabricated based on semi-insulating GaAs exploiting its advantageous dielectric properties. (C) 1998 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.