Performance of the carbon nanotube assembled tip for surface shape characterization

M. Yasutake^a, Y. Shirakawabe^a, T. Okawa^b, S. Mizooka^b, and Y. Nakayama^c

a) Seiko Instruments Inc. Oyamacho-takenoshita,Suntogun,Shizuoka 410-1393,Japan
b) Daiken Chemical Co. LTD. Osaka-shi,joto-ku,Nishi-hanaten,Osaka,536-0011,Japanﾅ@
c) Dept.of Physics and Electronics Osaka Prefecture University,Osaka 599-8531, Japan

The carbon nanotube has ideal properties for AFM tip. We assembled a carbon nanotube using two sets of three axial manipulators in the SEM chamber. In this process, length and angle of the carbon nanotube were adjusted by observing the SEM, and then the carbon nanotube was glued by amorphous carbon[1]. The results of performance are as follows. The life time of the carbon nanotube tip proved to be 5 times better than that of the conventional silicon tip in continuously measuring the microroughness of CZ P-type(100) silicon wafer. The carbon nanotube tip can trace the narrow space (bellow 1mm width) much better than the conventional silicon tip because of its high aspect ratio. Relations between observed image and carbon nanotube geometry will be discussed.

[1] J.phys.D:Appl.Phys.32(1999) 1044-1048