Thermal nano-probe

The novel thermal probe presented here is based on the changes of the elect rical resistivity of a nanometer-sized filament with temperature. The filam ent is integrated into an atomic force scanning probe piezoresistive type c antilever. Using a focused ion beam technique, the front end of the Al mean der is cut through, forming an approximately 1-mum wide gap. Employing an e lectron beam deposition technique a sub-100 nm diameter Pt filament is depo sited across the gap. The filament consists of an approximately 2- mum high loop with an additional spike deposited at the apex of the loop to improve spatial resolution. The new probe is an example on how a combination of CM OS technology, bulk and surface micromachining, focused ion beam technology and electron beam-induced deposition can be used to successfully fabricate unique nanoprobes. A spatial resolution of the order of 20 nm and a therma l resolution of 10(-3) K is obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BY All righ ts reserved.