Reverse Tip Sample (RTS) Scanning Probe Microscopy

Date: Wednesday 19 June 2024
Time: 3am NZST, 1am AEST, 11am AWST

If you are not a night owl register for the webinar and you will receive a copy after the event :)

Our guest speakers for this webinar developed Reverse Tip Sample (RTS) Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) to overcome the single-tip barrier of traditional SPM. By placing the sample on a tipless cantilever and the tip on the sample stage, RTS SPM essentially flips the conventional tip-sample positions.

The standout feature of this arrangement is the ability to change tips seamlessly, greatly boosting data collection efficiency in application spaces requiring frequent tip replacements. During operations in RTS configuration, the cantilever-mounted sample scans one of thousands of tips present on the probe chip. When a tip wears out, the operator repositions the cantilever onto an adjacent fresh tip, which takes mere seconds.

After a comprehensive introduction of the RTS SPM concept, this webinar will further discuss:

• Nanofabrication of probe chips and a dry etching process for fabricating high-quality Si probe chips, which features a novel tip sharpening step. The application of metal and diamond coatings on these Si probe chips will also be covered.
• Sample preparation, including dependable workflows developed for routinely preparing RTS SPM samples by focused ion beam (FIB) and FIB-less approaches. These time-efficient procedures yield RTS samples with excellent electrical contacts and mechanical stability.
• Measurements and applications of RTS SPM, such as statistical multi-tip studies, RTS Scalpel SPM, electrical tomography, and more.

Webinar Speakers:

Nemanja Peric, Ph.D., SPM Researcher, imec, Belgium
Pieter Lagrain, Engineer, imec, Belgium
Peter De Wolf, Ph.D., Senior Directory Technology & Application Development AFM, Bruker