German researchers of the Karsruhe Insitute for Technology (KIT) have used a 3D Nanoprinter to create nano tips for atomic force microscopy. The created nano tips have a bottom diameter of only 25 micrometre.
The nano tips are a very important part for every atomic force microscope. Until now they were created by hand which was an immense effort and very expensive too. With the Nanoprinter using Laserlithography technology, the researchers were capable of producing tips with a diameter of only 25 micrometre and a length of up to 100 micrometres in their first experiments.
However, to be useable in an atomic force microscope the tips need to be electrically conductive. To get to this goal the tips are baked in an oven without oxygen, then they carbonize – in the oven the tips also shrink. So this step makes them electrically conductive and it makes the tips smaller than the actual printing limit of the Nanoprinter at the same time. In the future the team wants to work with the same technique to create customized tips for atomic force microscopy that are cheaper than tips produced with conventional techniques. A first test of the 3D printed tips with an atomic force microscope was already successful.
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