Gallium Nitride Nanowire Probe for Near-Field Scanning Microwave Microscopy

Published

January 15, 2014

Author(s)

Joel C. Weber, Paul T. Blanchard, Aric W. Sanders, Atif A. Imtiaz, Thomas M. Wallis, Kevin J. Coakley, Kristine A. Bertness, Pavel Kabos, Norman A. Sanford, Victor M. Bright

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of a GaN nanowire probe for near-field scanning microwave microscopy. A single nanowire was Pt-bonded to a commercial Si cantilever prior to evaporation of a Ti/Al coating to provide a microwave signal pathway. Testing over a microcapacitor calibration sample shows the probe to have capacitance resolution of at least 0.7 fF with improved sensitivity and reduced uncertainty compared with a commercial microwave probe. High strength of the defect-free nanowire enabled it to maintain a tip radius of 150 nm after multiple contact-mode scans while demonstrating nanometer-scale topographical resolution.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

104

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Citation

Weber, J. , Blanchard, P. , Sanders, A. , Imtiaz, A. , Wallis, T. , Coakley, K. , Bertness, K. , Kabos, P. , Sanford, N. and Bright, V. (2014), Gallium Nitride Nanowire Probe for Near-Field Scanning Microwave Microscopy, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4861862 (Accessed October 8, 2025)