Does the infrared light pass through the silicon cantilever tip?
Yes. Silicon (non-dope) with the thickness of about 1mm shows transparency of about 50% for the IR light of 1.2 um – 8 um. IR light in that range can go through the silicon cantilever and/or tip (OMCL-AC160BN-: non-coat cantilever) because the cantilever and tip are thin. • Does OLYMPUS have highly doped silicon cantilevers? I am interested in STM/AFM simultaneous measurement. It’s not available, however OLYMPUS offers a platinum-deposited probe; OMCL-AC240TM- as its alternative. Silicon tip cantilevers in OMCL-AC series are made of n-type single crystal silicon lightly doped with phosphorus that is a semiconductor material and the tip surface is covered with natural oxide layer. So OLYMPUS asks metal coating in customer side for the use. Most of doped silicon cantilever probes from others have also covered with natural oxide layer. So if you can allow the tip radius increase, platinum-deposited probe; OMCL-AC240TM- is recommended. • In tuning the cantilever-drive-frequency before scan
Cantilever Tip wear gradually progresses during the measurement. The tip shape will change to dull (blunt). Yes Infrared Light can pass throught Cantilever tip because of following reasons:
1) Every cross sectional shape of the tetrahedral tip is triangle.
2) Stiffness and resonant frequency.
3) 25% for the visible light is combined in cantilever that helps to do so.
