Infrared and Laser Engineering, Volume. 49, Issue 2, 213001(2020)

Investigation of AFM tip characterization based on multilayer gratings

Wu Ziruo*, Cai Yanni, Wang Xingrui, Zhang Longfei, Deng Xiao, Cheng Xinbin, and Li Tongbao
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  • [in Chinese]
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    Atomic force microscope(AFM) is one of the main instruments in the microscale and nanoscale measurement area. Since the AFM tip can′t be infinitely sharp, the shape of the tip is included in AFM image. This is a big source of image distortion. To obtain the shape and dimensions of tip is an effective method to remove the "tip effect" and improve the accuracy of measurement images. In this study, tip characterizers with high intra-sample uniformity were fabricated by utilizing the Si/SiO2 multilayer gratings technology, and critical dimension(CD) structures with a nominal CD of 20 nm had been fabricated to calibrate the tip. The calibration results showed that the selected AFM tip(Rectangular Front Etched Silicon Probe, RFESP) became blunt after scanning, together with the front side angle(15°) and back side angle (25°) increased to 36° and 45°, respectively. Therefore, the tip characterizers formed by the Si/SiO2 multilayer CD structures can be used to quickly obtain the side angle information, which is an effective method to complete the fast check and estimations of tip shapes during the AFM scanning. The investigation of AFM tip characterization based on multilayer gratings are meaningful for the promotion of accuracy in AFM measurement images.

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    Wu Ziruo, Cai Yanni, Wang Xingrui, Zhang Longfei, Deng Xiao, Cheng Xinbin, Li Tongbao. Investigation of AFM tip characterization based on multilayer gratings[J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2020, 49(2): 213001

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    Paper Information

    Category: 光电测量

    Received: Nov. 5, 2019

    Accepted: Dec. 15, 2019

    Published Online: Mar. 10, 2020

    The Author Email: Ziruo Wu (ziruo0930@163.com)

    DOI:10.3788/irla202049.0213001

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