Characterization of microfabriacted multilayered nearfield cantilever array

The nearfield optical probe array was fabricated using various microfabrication techniques such as isotropic etching of Si, silicon oxide and silicon nitride in addition to anisotropic etching of Si using alkaline solution. The nanosize oxide aperture was fabricated using diluted hydrofluoric acid solution and the nanosize oxide aperture with 100 nm diameter on the cantilever array was metal coated using sputter deposition technique. The physical dimension of the fabricated cantilever array with nearfield optical probe was examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy and the resonant frequency of the cantilever was measured by atomic force microscopy (AutoProbe CP, PSI) and its average resonant frequency was found to be ~163 kHz, on the other hand, the theoretically calculated value was 143 kHz.