R. J. Warmack

Adsorption-induced surface stress and its effects on resonance frequency of microcantilevers

It is well known that bimetallic microcantilevers can exhibit static deflection as a result of thermal effects, including exothermic adsorption of chemicals on their surfaces. It is shown here that the resonance frequency of a cantilever can change due to a combination of mass loading and change of spring constant resulting from adsorption of chemicals on the surface. Cantilevers also undergo static bending that is induced by differential surface stress. The magnitude of these effects depends upon the chemical properties of the surface and upon the amount of material adsorbed. Hence cantilever deflection as well as resonance frequency change can be used as the basis for development of novel chemical sensors.

Detection of mercury vapor using resonating microcantilevers

Oscillating silicon nitride microcantilevers coated with a thin gold film have been used to detect mercury vapor in air. Cantilever resonance frequency changes due to surface mass loading as a result of adsorption of mercury vapor. Furthermore, cantilever bending is also altered due to changes in surface stress induced by mercury adsorption on the gold overlayer. Both of these phenomena can be used to quantitatively detect adsorbed vapors with picogram mass resolution.

THERMAL AND AMBIENT-INDUCED DEFLECTIONS OF SCANNING FORCE MICROSCOPE CANTILEVERS

The deflection of scanning force microscope cantilevers, metal coated on one side, is significantly influenced by both thermal heating and variations in relative humidity. For constant relative humidity, the deflection of the cantilever drifts due to laser heating and eventually reaches a steady‐state value. For a thermally stabilized cantilever, the deflection varies linearly with relative humidity. Exposure to other vapors, such as mercury, changes the inherent deflection of the cantilever. Relative amounts of adsorbates on the cantilever can be estimated from shifts in the cantilever resonance frequency with picogram mass resolution. The cantilever deflection as well as changes in resonance frequency due to vapor adsorption can be used as basis for novel chemical sensors.

Resonance response of scanning force microscopy cantilevers

A variational method is used to calculate the deflection and the fundamental and harmonic resonance frequencies of commercial V‐shaped and rectangular atomic force microscopy cantilevers. The effective mass of V‐shaped cantilevers is roughly half that calculated for the equivalent rectangular cantilevers. Damping by environmental gases, including air, nitrogen, argon, and helium, affects the frequency of maximum response and to a much greater degree the quality factor Q. Helium has the lowest viscosity, resulting in the highest Q, and thus provides the best sensitivity in noncontact force microscopy. Damping in liquids is dominated by an increase in effective mass of the cantilever due to an added mass of the liquid being dragged with that cantilever.

Viscous drag measurements utilizing microfabricated cantilevers

The influence of viscous drag forces on cantilevers is investigated using standard atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers. Viscosity effects on several geometrically different cantilevers manifest themselves as variations in resonance frequencies, quality factors, and cantilever response amplitudes. With this novel measurement, a single cantilever can be used to measure viscosities ranging from η=10−2 to 102 g/cm s.

Multiple-input microcantilever sensors

A surface-micromachined micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) process has been used to demonstrate multiple-input chemical sensing using selectively coated cantilever arrays. Cantilever motion due to absorption-induced stress was readout using a custom-designed, eight-channel integrated circuit. Combined hydrogen and mercury vapor detection was achieved with a palm-sized, self-powered module with spread-spectrum telemetry reporting.

Remote optical detection using microcantilevers

The feasibility of microcantilever‐based optical detection is demonstrated. Microcantilevers may provide a simple means for developing single‐element and multielement infrared sensors that are smaller, more sensitive, and lower in cost than quantum well, thermoelectric, or bolometric sensors. Here we specifically report here on an evaluation of laboratory prototypes that are based on commercially available microcantilevers, such as those used in atomic force microscopy. In this work, optical transduction techniques were used to measure microcantilever response to remote sources of thermal energy. The noise equivalent power at 20 Hz for room temperature microcantilevers was found to be approximately 3.5 nW/√Hz, with a specific detectivity of 3.6×107 cm Hz1/2/W, when an uncoated microcantilever was irradiated by a low‐power diode laser operating at 786 nm. Operation is shown to be possible from dc to kHz frequencies, and the effect of cantilever shape and the role of absorptive coatings are discussed. Finally, spectral response in the midinfrared is evaluated using both coated and uncoated microcantilevers.

Uncooled thermal imaging using a piezoresistive microcantilever

The operation of an uncooled, microcantilever‐based infrared (IR) imaging device is demonstrated. Bending of the microcantilever is a function of the IR radiation intensity incident on the cantilever surface. The infrared image of the source is obtained by rastering a microfabricated cantilever over the image formed at the focal plane of a concave mirror. The bending variation of the microcantilever, as it scanned the focal plane of the mirror, is used to construct an infrared image of the source in front of the mirror. The thermal image obtained by scanning a single element cantilever is presented.

Investigation of adsorption and absorption-induced stresses using microcantilever sensors

The interaction between a vapor and a thin film adsorbed on one side of a bimaterial microcantilever produces differential stress, resulting in readily measurable curvatures of the cantilever structure. Depending upon the system studied, there exist two types of gas–solid interaction: bulk-like absorption and surface-like adsorption. The absorption of hydrogen into palladium results in film expansion whose magnitude is governed by hydrogen partial pressure. The bending of a bimaterial microcantilever (palladium/silicon) due to hydrogen absorption depends on the thickness of the palladium film and is reversible but rate limited by a surface barrier. In contrast, the stress induced by adsorption of mercury onto a bimaterial (gold/silicon) cantilever is irreversible at room temperature, is rate limited by surface coverage, and is independent of the gold–film thickness.

Photon scanning tunneling microscopy

An optical tunneling microscope is presented that operates in exactly the same way as the electron scanning tunneling microscope (ESTM). It takes advantage of evanescent fields generated by the total internal reflection (TIR) of light at the interface between materials of different optical densities. The photon scanning tunneling microscope (PSTM) employs an optically conducting probe tip to map spatial variations in the evanescent and scattered field intensity distributions adjacent to a sample surface, which forms or is placed on the TIR surface. These variations are due to the local topography, morphology, and optical activity of the surface and form the basis of imaging. Evanescent field theory is discussed and the evanescent field intensity as a function of surface‐probe separation is calculated using several probe tip models. After a description of PSTM construction and operation, evanescent field intensity measurements are shown to agree with the model calculations. PSTM images of various sample su...