HIGHLY SENSITIVE CANTILEVERS, WITH AND WITHOUT MAGNETIC TIP, FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE FORCE MICROSCOPY

In this paper we present the fabrication and characterization of highly sensitive cantilevers, with and without magnetic tip, used for magnetic resonance force microscopy experiments. The full wafer silicon batch microfabrication was successful and the achieved production yield was about 70%. Cantilevers have been characterized in vacuum, at room temperature, and revealed promising properties for MRFM applications. A cantilever of 500x10x0.34 􀀃m3 dimensions, a resonance frequency of 1670 Hz and a spring constant of 0.00014 N/m, we measured a quality factor of 27000 giving a minimum detectable force of 8x10-17 N/Hz1/2.