Preamplifying Cantilevers for Contact Resonance Mode Imaging

A novel preamplifying cantilever (PCL) design for scanning probe microscopes (SPM) that is capable of mechanically amplifying specimen movements is presented. The sample motions in both out-of-plane and in-plane directions are amplified by the PCL. The spatial resolution of the cantilever is in the nanometer scale and is comparable with existing SPM cantilevers. Some of the proposed applications are in the areas of ferroelectric domain imaging [1]-[5]. The amplification was demonstrated with measurements on ferroelectric materialswhich included periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). Feasibility tests show that a 100x mechanical preamplification is possible with the current cantilever design, providing a much better signal to noise ratio on both amplitude and phase response measurements than the previous art (e.g. [8]).