A MEMS Nanopositioner With Integrated Tip for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Alipour, Afshin; Coskun, M. Bulut; Moheimani, S. O. Reza

doi:10.1109/jmems.2021.3052180

A MEMS Nanopositioner With Integrated Tip for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Journal Article · Tue Jan 26 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/jmems.2021.3052180· OSTI ID:1900523

Alipour, Afshin ^[1]; Coskun, M. Bulut ^[2]; Moheimani, S. O. Reza ^[3]

Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States); University of Texas at Dallas
Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States); NASA Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (United States)
Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)

Slow Z-axis dynamics of Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) is a key contributing factor to the slow scan speed of this instrument. A great majority of STM systems use piezotube nanopositioners for scanning. The piezotube bulkiness along with the mass of STM tip assembly restrict the overall Z-axis bandwidth of the system to about 1 kHz. This limited bandwidth slows down the STM response to the sample topography changes. In this paper, we report a microfabrication process to build a Microelectromechanical-System (MEMS) nanopositioner for Z-axis positioning in STM with a tenfold bandwidth, and a similar range of motion. The MEMS device features an integrated nanometer-sharp in-plane Si tip, compatible with conventional batch fabrication processes. In addition, a novel electrical isolation technique is developed to electrically isolate the tip from the rest of this device. This enables us to provide a separate routing for tunneling current signal, enabling potential applications in parallelism. The fabricated MEMS device achieves 1.6 μm motion with its first in-plane resonance beyond 10 kHz. The capability of this MEMS nanopositioner to replace the Z-axis of STMs is demonstrated through establishing controlled and stable tunneling current on a graphite sample in ambient conditions.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008322

OSTI ID:: 1900523

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1848734

Journal Information:: Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 30; ISSN 1057-7157

Publisher:: IEEECopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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