Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Yoshimitsu Enomoto

Akitoshi Toda

Takao Okada

Hiroshi Kajimura

Hirofumi Miyamoto

Tsugiko Takase

Shuzo Mishima

Yuzo Nakamura

Hiroko Ohta

Michio Takayama

Yasuji Nagata

Etsuo Shinohara

Yasushi Satoh

Toshiaki Matsuzawa

Kaoru Tadokoro

Ryo Ohta

A cantilever for a scanning probe microscope comprises a lever section and a probe section disposed near the free end thereof. The probe section includes a conical distal end portion having a narrow point angle and a bulging proximal end portion continuous with the distal end portion. The cantilever is manufactured by utilizing a semiconductor process.

Cantilever for a scanning probe microscope and a method of manufacturing

An atomic force microscope comprises a probe having a sharply-pointed tip end. The probe is supported on the free end portion of a cantilever and is close to the surface of a specimen. When an interatomic force is produced, the cantilever is deformed, and the probe is displaced. The displacement of the probe is detected by an optical system. A light beam emitted from a light source is collimated by a lens, and reflected by a polarized beam-splitter, and also by a half-mirror. Then, the light beam passes through a quarter wavelength plate and an objective lens, such that the light is converged on the cantilever. The reflected light beam from the cantilever returns along the same optical path and passes through the splitter. The light beam is divided into two light beams at the splitter. These two light beams are reflected by respective prisms and are then incident on respective photodetectors. These photodetectors detect the displacement of the probe.

Atomic force microscope

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Tokyo, Japan

Yoshimitsu Enomoto