Fabrication of co-axial field emitter tips for scanning probe energy loss spectroscopy

Mi Song, Alexander Robinson, Richard Palmer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of a co-axial tip for application to scanning probe energy loss spectroscopy (SPELS). The device consists of a 23.3 mu m tall tip on a 76 mu m tall mesa with a multilayer Si/Au/HfO2/Au structure; the outer Au and HfO2 layers are stripped from the apex of the tip. The inner Au layer is used as a field emitting layer and the outer Au layer is grounded to screen the electric field between the tip and the substrate. The co-axial tip shows comparable field emission characteristics to electrochemically etched tungsten tips. The SPELS spectra of graphite obtained with the new tips show pi and sigma plasmon peaks and intense secondary electron emission peaks. It is anticipated that such co-axial tips will present a significant advantage for future angular resolved SPELS measurements.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)155304
Number of pages1
JournalNanotechnology
Volume21
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2010

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