A switchable cantilever for a novel time-of-flight scanning force microscope

This paper describes the design, fabrication and demonstration of a cantilever-based device used in a novel instrument called time-of-flight scanning force microscope (TOF-SFM). The TOF-SFM consists of a switchable cantilever (SC) with integrated piezoresistive strain sensor for topographic imaging, an integrated extraction electrode (EE), and a commercial TOF mass spectrometer (TOF-MS). It allows quasi-simultaneous topographical and chemical analyses of a sample surfaces to be performed in the same way as with conventional scanning probe technique. Significant results are included: (1) the interlocking-type assembling concept for precise tip-EE alignment, (2) the switching properties of the SC, and (3) first demonstrations of field emission and TOF analysis using the TOF-SFM.