Optical system for high-speed Atomic Force Microscope

Abstract

This thesis presents the design and development of an optical cantilever deflection sensor for a high speed Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This optical sensing system is able to track a small cantilever while the X-Y scanner moves in the X-Y plane at 1KHz over a large range of 50x50 microns. To achieve these requirements, we evaluated a number of design concepts among which the lever method and the fiber collimator method were selected. Experiments were performed to characterize the performance of the integrated AFM and to show that the cantilever tracking while the scanner is in operation was accomplished. A triangular grating was imaged with the lever method optical subassembly integrated with the scanner to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.