AFM characterisation of silicon-on-insulator push-in plates for Casimir force measurements

Author

Anthony, C.J. ; Bowen, J. ; Torricelli, G. ; Carter, E.L. ; Ward, M.C.L. ; Binns, C.

Author_Institution

MicroEng. & Nanotechnol. Group, Univ. of Birmingham, Birmingham

Volume

3

Issue

1

fYear

2008

fDate

3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

7

Lastpage

11

Abstract

The use of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material to fabricate a set of push-in plates for Casimir force measurements is reported. These plates have the advantage of being parallel as fabricated, which is an essential criterion for accurate Casimir force measurements. The roughness of the inner SOI silicon surfaces after the removal of the sacrificial buried oxide and subsequent CO₂ critical point drying is characterised. The root-mean-square (RMS) surface roughness measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) is of the order of 0.25 nm and is shown by calculation to be an insignificant contribution to the measurement of the Casimir force with these plates.

Keywords

Casimir effect; atomic force microscopy; micromechanical devices; silicon-on-insulator; surface roughness; Casimir force measurements; MEMS; NEMS; Si-Jk; atomic force microscopy; carbon dioxide critical point drying; inner SOI silicon surface roughness; push-in plates; root-mean-square surface roughness; sacrificial buried oxide; silicon-on-insulator materials;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Micro & Nano Letters, IET

Publisher

iet

ISSN

1750-0443

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/mnl:20070067

Filename

4483848