Microfabricated diamond tip for nanoprobing

In nanoprobing experiments the tip should allow the manipulation and the probing of electrical, mechanical and other properties of nano-scale structures. In this work we present a novel approach for producing tips for nanoprobing using microfabrication technology. Conductive diamond was selected as a tip material to allow electrical measurements with high contact forces and to avoid tip wear during the probing. In-plane triangular shapes of the tip and the cantilever allow to position several nanoprobes in close proximity and to simultaneously observe the contact point in scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) topography measurements and scanning spreading resistance measurements (SSRM) demonstrated nanometer-scale lateral resolution of the tips. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.