Fabrication and Characterization of carbon nanotube tip modified by focused ion beam

The paper described on the development of a scanning probe microscope tip with CNT (carbon nanotube). Dielectrophoresis was used for assembling the CNT on the sharp end of a Si AFM tip. To adjust the morphology of the CNT tip, focused ion beam (FIB) was systematically used. The straightness of the CNT tip was improved and its length was controlled by cutting a part of the CNT. Tip´s characteristics in non-contact AFM(atomic force microscopy) mode was mainly dealt with various experimental results such as wear, deep trench measurement, and high resolution imaging. Comparing to the conventional Si tip, a CNT-modified FIB tip was stronger to wear, more traceable to deep trench structure and more adaptable to figure out the fine structure like anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) structure. It is expect that CNT-modified tip is very promising for industrial usage of AFM.