Quartz tuning fork-based conductive atomic force microscope with glue-free solid metallic tips》.pdf

Sensors and Actuators A 232 (2015) 259–266 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sensors and Actuators A: Physical j o u rn al h omepage: w w w. elsev /locate/sna Quartz tuning fork-based conductive atomic force microscope with glue-free solid metallic tips Luis Botaya a , Jorge Otero a , Laura González a , Xavier Coromina a , Gabriel Gomila a,b , Manel Puig-Vidal a,∗ a Departament d’Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franqès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain b Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC), Balidiri i Reixac 15-21, 08028, Barcelona, Spain a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Here, we devise a conductive Atomic Force Microscope (C-AFM) based on quartz tuning forks (QTFs) Received 24 October 2014 and metallic tips capable of simultaneously imaging the topography and conductance of a sample with Received in revised form 11 June 2015 nanoscale spatial resolution. The system is based on a header design which allows the metallic tip to be Accepted 11 June 2015 placed in tight and stable mechanical contact with the QTF without the need to use any glue. This allows Available online 19 June 2015 electrical measurements to be taken with an electrically excited QTF with the two prongs free. The amplitude oscillation of the QTF is used to control the tip-sample distance and to acquire the topographic Keywords: images. Meanwhile, the m