Olympus BL-AC10DS-A2 User manual

Please obey the following to the OLYMPUS micro cantilevers
user’s manual
Case label
Product name
Thank you for purchasing OLYMPUS Micro cantilevers.
Please read this manual carefully before use.
- -
BL-AC10DS-A2
1.5
0.1
＜Explanation of the part of the products＞
Manual and Specification sheet
Plastic pack (translucent blue)
Plastic case
（Cantilever chips are in the case）
Cantilever chips in a plastic case are included in the envelope with manual and spec sheet.
Envelope for transportation
Label
Case (Tac carrier) Adhesive sheet Cantilever chips
Upside
Down side
Tape
Case (closed) Case (open)
Cantilevers are tip-side-up
as viewed in the case.
Case Label
Cantilever chips are contained in the plastic case (Tac carrier)
Cantilever
One cantilever elongates from the side
of round shoulders of the chip.
Magnified illust.
Lot Number
Inspection stamp
Caution
Please handle our cantilevers carefully because they are fragile.
Caution
Do not drop or shake the cantilever case. Even when the cantilever
chips are contained in the cantilever case, the cantilevers may break if
the case is handled roughly or jarred.
Use protective eye glasses when handling to avoid damage
to the eyes from breakage of the cantilever chips.
Warning
Caution
It is recommended that precautions be taken to prevent damage to the
cantilever tips from electrostatic discharge.
Caution
Cantilever chip
(substrate)
When discarding, please obey the laws and regulations in your country
and/or your company. These cantilevers are made of silicon nitride and
gold/chromium.
(MHz)
(N/m)
- 2e -
- 1e -

Special feature of OLYMPUS Micro cantilever
1 Preparation
4 Attaching the cantilever chip to your instrument
5. Pre-separated chip
The chips can be attached to the AFM instrument as soon as the case is open.
Table of contents
1 Preparation
2 Open the case
3 Picking up the cantilever chip from the case
5 Plate-like tip
6 When attaching a cantilever chip to AFM
8 Information 8e
page
1) Please prepare the followings before using OLYMPUS cantilevers.
2) To gain a better understanding of how cantilevers and chips are connected, cantilevers should
be inspected under the microscope.
1) Work environment
2) For hazard avoidance
3) For cantilever treatment
4) For inspection
2 Open the case
1) It is recommended that the cantilever case be opened in a clean environment like a clean bench in
order to avoid the cantilever being contaminated. Handling under an ionizer is recommended.
2) Avoid wearing clothes like woolen sweaters, fleece etc that give off the static electricity when
handling the cantilever cases and chips. Use of an anti-electrostatic mat and wrist band is preferable.
It is recommended that precautions be taken to prevent damage to the
cantilever tips from electrostatic discharge.
Caution
See the specification sheet of OLYMPUS Micro cantilevers at the last page of this manual.
4e
5e
6e
7e
：Clean bench
(Use of an electrical charge neutralizer of ionizer is recommended.)
：Protective eye glasses
：Tweezers (sharp pointed tip)
：Thin stick like Toothpick, Both side adhesive tape
：Anti-static mat
(Use of tweezers made of insulator is recommended.)
(Use of anti-electrostatic discharge mat and a wrist band is
recommended.)
：Stereo microscope
Please handle our cantilevers carefully because they are fragile.
Caution
4e
7e
3) Wind both-side adhesive tape around the top of the thin stick to prepare an adhesive stick for
picking up the chips from the cantilever wafer
(BL-AC10DS-A2)
3. Tip View
This cantilever is shaped like bird-beak so that the tip is located at the very end
of the cantilever.
1. Short and thin cantilever
This feature allows you to set the tip over a point of interest on the sample,
easily and precisely, if you use an AFM combined with an optical microscope.
2. Monolithic tip
The triangular portion near the cantilever free-end laps
under at an angle of 35 degrees and the corner of the
triangular portion behave as an actual probe with its
tip radius of 24 nm (typ.). The tip and lever are
monolithic so that tip-breakage around the interface of
tip and lever is avoidable.
4. Gold reflex coating
Gold is coated on the back side of the cantilevers for optical deflection sensing.
This small silicon-nitride cantilever is suitable for high speed AFM
measurement in water and shows high resonance more than 300 kHz (500 kHz
(typ.)) in water while it is soft enough for revealing soft bio samples (spring
constant 0.1 N/m (typ.)). It shapes in bird-beak, sized 9 m(L) x 2 m(W) x 0.13
m(T). It should be used in AFMs which deflection sensor illuminate cantilevers
with their laser spot less than 5 m in diam. (ideally less than 2 m).
7 Making an additional tip on the tip 8e
- 3e - - 4e -
9 Specification 1s

4 Attaching the cantilever chips to your instrument
3) In opening the case, put the plastic case label-side down on a desk.
The cantilevers are tip-side-up as viewed in the case.
4) Open the case.
1) Please read the instruction manual of your scanning probe microscope before this operation.
This cantilever can not be used at a commercially SPM due to its smallness, 9 m(L) x 2 m(W) x
0.13 m(T).
To attach the cantilever chip to the chip holder in your SPM,
2) Place the chip on the adhesive stick gently against the prescribed part in your chip holder.
(see left below)
3) Press the center of the chip with sharp pointed tweezers and pull apart the stick from the chip.
(see right below)
3 Picking up the cantilever chip from the case
1) Press down gently on the part between the center and one third of the chip along the
center line with the adhesive stick (see left below).
Avoid any contact with the cantilevers when you pull up the cantilever
tip from the case.
Caution
4) Lock the chip into the chip holder in accordance with the manner described in the manual of
your SPM. Most of the chip holders in AFMs use a leaf spring or a wire for pressing the chip
to the holder. It is recommended that the chip is pressed with those at the center of the chip
to achieve a good mechanical coupling between the chip and the holder.
Cantilever chips should always be placed tip-side-up.
Caution
2) Do not press the chip too much,
or the chip might be buried in
the Gel sheet and the cantilever
must break.
3) Pull up the stick carefully, then
the adhered chip is picked up
together (see below).
Note : Some of both-side adhesive tapes have not enough adhesive to pick up the chip
from the Gel sheet. Then use the tweezers for this procedure.
Note) To avoid contact with the cantilever,
the tweezers should not access to the
chip from cantilever side. Put the
tweezers on the chip like following
illustration.
- 6e -
- 5e -

As illustrated below, the cantilever is short and small. The chip edge and sample
surface should be kept parallel to each other in the AFM system to avoid any contact
of a chip shoulder and the sample surface. It is strongly recommended that both of
bottom-side surface of the chip and chip holder be kept clean and particle-free. A
contamination particle between them might tilt the chip to contact them each other.
While observing the lever and chip with an optical microscope of your AFM system,
you may find bright line or belt as shown in the illustration below. It works as a guide
to find the small cantilever before adjusting sensor optics. The cantilever locates near
the center of the bright line.
Chipedge
Bottom-side surface
of the chip
The tip radius is less than 30 nm. For higher-resolution in measurements, it is
recommended to fabricate another thin wire tip like a carbon at the apex of the tip.
Ver.1.1 Jul. 7, 2010
OLYMPUS CORPORATION
Please contact following if you have any question on this user’s manual.
OLYMPUS CORPORATION
Microtechnology R&D Division
2-3 Kuboyama-cho Hachioji-shi Tokyo 192-8512 Japan
Email : [email protected]
Please access to the web page of OLYMPUS micro cantilevers.
http://www.olympus.co.jp/probe
7 Making an additional tip on the tip
8 Information
- 8e -
5 Plate-like tip
Left image is an SEM image of the
cantilever apex viewing from the side.
The plate-like tip is located at the end
of the cantilever.
The plate-like tip elongates by around
1 m with its tip-tilt-angle at 35
degrees with respect to the normal line
of the cantilever.
Its corner edge of the plate-like tip
looks like a miniature tetrahedral tip
and behaves as the substantive tip
during the scanning
Schematic view of cantilever chip
６ When attaching a cantilever chip to AFM
1um
35 deg.
Tip
Lever
Bright line
Chip shoulders
- 7e -
Cantilever
Substantive tip