However, tipless silicon cantilevers are still not cost-effective to fabricate, and their resonance frequencies exhibit intrinsic uncertainty originating from non-uniform wafer thickness and spatiotemporal process variation during fabrication. The multiple regeneration was guaranteed by the etch selectivity of silicon in piranha solution that exclusively removed the PEGDA tip. In addition to the systematic wear comparison, it was shown that a worn or damaged PEGDA tip could be regenerated multiple times by chemically removing it and subsequently attaching a new PEGDA tip to a tipless silicon cantilever. The recent study revealed that a PEGDA tip shows superior wear-resistance to silicon tip due to the extended attractive regime for the PEGDA tip, which makes the true noncontact mode imaging more favorable. Therefore, it would be ideal if the worn or damaged imaging tip could be independently replaced. Moreover, the organic and inorganic combination of imaging tip and resonating body offers regeneration of the imaging tip upon its degradation.Īlthough atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes have been typically made of silicon that is the second most abundant atom on earth, disposal of the whole probes is neither cost-effective nor environment-friendly considering the fabrication cost/time and hazardous chemicals used during fabrication. The relatively large PEGDA tip enables facile operation during approach and engagement. In a stark contrast with conventional QTF probes in attachment of electrochemically etched metallic wires or microfabricated AFM cantilevers, photocuring of liquid phase prepolymer within a tip mold demonstrated herein allows adhesive-free and exclusive attachment of the imaging tip onto a QTF. Exclusively for the PEGDA tip attached QTF, we demonstrate that the imaging tip could be regenerated multiple times to address issues associated with tip wear. Then, the PEGDA tip attached QTF is employed for shear force microscopy for calibration grating and atomic layers of hexagonal silicon carbide and also compared with a silicon tip attached QTF. By approaching a QTF to the negative h-PDMS tip mold filled with polyethylene glycol-diacrylate (PEGDA), a PEGDA tip is attached to the QTF without using an adhesive. The tungsten tip of 10–100 nm radius obtained by time-controlled electrochemical etching is replicated with h-polydimethylsiloxane (h-PDMS) to make negative conical tip molds large enough to be used for QTFs. This paper reports the first demonstration of hydrogel conical tip attachment onto quartz tuning fork (QTF) by using an elastomeric tip mold that is soft-lithographically replicated from an electrochemically etched tungsten wire.
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