Integrated optical waveguide atomic force microscopy system with a differential splitter readout

There is an urgent need for high-speed atomic force microscopy (AFM) systems, and chip-AFM on an integrated optical waveguide provides a perfect solution. A differential splitter of double waveguides is introduced as a readout method of an integrated optical waveguide AFM to overcome the non-linear response of a conventional optical waveguide AFM. Results show that an optical waveguide AFM with a 190 nm width and 1 mu m height nano-tip shows a good monotonic dependence on the cantilever deflection within a range of +/- 0.4 mu m using a differential splitter readout method. (C) 2022 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)