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arXiv · 1909.03035

Ultra-low dissipation patterned silicon nanowire arrays for scanning probe microscopy

Pardis Sahafi·William Rose·Andrew Jordan·Ben Yager·Michèle Piscitelli·Raffi Budakian
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Abstract

In recent years, self-assembled semiconductor nanowires have been successfully used as ultra-sensitive cantilevers in a number of unique scanning probe microscopy (SPM) settings. We describe the fabrication of ultra-low dissipation patterned silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays optimized for scanning probe applications. Our fabrication process produces, with high yield, ultra-high aspect ratio vertical SiNWs that exhibit exceptional force sensitivity. The highest sensitivity SiNWs have thermomechanical-noise limited force sensitivity of $9.7\pm0.4~\text{aN}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ at room temperature and $500\pm20~\text{zN}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ at 4 K. To facilitate their use in SPM, the SiNWs are patterned within $7~\mu\text{m}$ from the edge of the substrate, allowing convenient optical access for displacement detection.

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Pardis Sahafi, William Rose, Andrew Jordan, Ben Yager, Michèle Piscitelli, Raffi Budakian. 2019-09-06. Ultra-low dissipation patterned silicon nanowire arrays for scanning probe microscopy. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03668

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