THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF VIBRATIONS OF OPTICAL-FIBER CANTILEVERS FOR ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY

Optical fiber cantilevers with uniform diameters are fabricated using an etching method. Resonant frequencies of the optical fiber cantileve rs with different lengths and diameters are calculated with the flexur al wave theory of elastic beams. An experimental system is built for m easuring the spectrum of the resonant frequencies of the optical fiber cantilever. Two optical fiber cantilevers with diameters of 8.8 and 1 1 mu m and lengths of 568 and 776 mu m, are examined separately with t he system. The measurements agree well with theory. The experiments sh ow that the higher vibrational modes of the optical fiber cantilever c an be excited with high amplitude, which is well suited for sensing pu rposes. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)01804-8 ].