Conductive transparent fiber probes for shear-force atomic force microscopes

New conductive transparent (CT) probes that can inject currents into nanometer-sized regions and collect light from them have been developed for shear-force atomic force microscopy (SF-AFM) of partially isolative regions. The CT probe consists of a straight elastic silica fiber with one end tapered to a point. The taper is coated with an indium-tin-oxide film as a transparent electrode, and the probe apex has a nanometer-scale radius. The essential feature of the CT probes is coaxial nickel plating on the shaft of the isolative silica fiber, which is adjusted to obtain suitable elasticity for smooth shear-force feedback as well as for supplying currents to the transparent electrode. Experimental results clarified that nickel thickness between 0.5 and 15 μm on 20 mm-long fibers makes resistance low enough for supplying current to the probe apex and also makes the Q curves smooth enough for shear-force feedback. Clear SF-AFM and current images were successfully obtained for a sample containing both conductive and isolative regions. The CT probes for SF-AFM can expand applications of probe-current-induced luminescence measurements to samples that contain highly resistive and isolative regions, for which scanning tunneling microscopy cannot be applied.