NANOSCALE CALIPER FOR DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF SCANNING FORCE MICROSCOPYPROBES

We show the possibility to measure the effective tip shape and the lat eral resolution of a scanning force microscopy (SFM) probe on the nano meter-scale directly from SFM images of SiC(0001), On this surface the re are grooves 10-100-nm-wide related to cleavage plane, The SFM tip p enetrates the groove but does not reach the bottom since its side wall s touch both rims, The width of the narrowest groove resolved is the l ateral resolution. The apparent topography across a groove yields dire ctly the tip radius of curvature in excellent agreement with the value s estimated fi om scanning electron micrographs. (C) 1997 American Ins titute of Physics.