Massively parallel cantilever-free atomic force microscopy

Resolution and field-of-view often represent a fundamental tradeoff in microscopy. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), in which a cantilevered probe deflects under the influence of local forces as it scans across a substrate, is a key example of this tradeoff with high resolution imaging being largely limited to small areas. This paper demonstrates massively parallel AFM with >1000 probes through a cantilever-free probe architecture and a scalable optical detection method. Optically reflective conical probes on a compliant film create a distributed optical lever, translating probe motion into an optical signal with sub-10 nm vertical precision. The scalability allows high-resolution imaging over large areas.

Wenhan Cao, Nourin Alsharif, Zhongjie Huang, Alice E. White, YuHuang Wang, Keith A. Brown