Single crystal diamond AFM probes with high aspect ratio

We’re glad to present the new product in our assortment: AFM cantilevers with single crystal diamond (SCD) tips. This type of probes is represented by a very narrow diamond (CVD-grown) needle glued to a standard tipless polysilicon cantilever.

AFM probes prepared by such technology show several features, especially relevant to AFM scans:

• SCD tip’s cone angle is less than 10 degrees. Thus a diamond needle will get into deep trenches and between high particles, providing detailed topography images.
• Single crystal diamond tip’s end is very hard. As the result wear of such cantilevers is several times slower than for standard silicon ones. Low deformation of a tip will be a great utility for elasticity investigations and simple nanoindentation or force lithography experiments.
• SCD tip has got low surface energy and it works well for sticky biological samples.

SCD AFM cantilevers are constantly used by famous NT-MDT application scientists: Sergey Magonov and Marko Surtchev. Thus we’re absolutely sure in quality of these probes.

On the right image the one can see a scan of so-called “Black silicon” relief. Such surface can be constructed by a special etching experiment and is used in solar cells.

Main challenges in visualization of “black silicon” pyramids are their heights that reach 6-7 um. Standard cantilever can’t get between such high and densely grown structures. But as the one may see from the scan, SCD probes worked well. Sharp pyramid’s shape and well-defined flat areas between them approve high quality of the scan.

Now SCD cantilevers are presented in our assortment by the models HA_NC/SCD and HA_C/SCD with the same lever’s parameters as for corresponding ones of ETALON series. But by the request SCD needles can be glued to any types of tipless cantilevers of Golden and Etalon series.