Byeonghee Lee et al 2012 Nanotechnology 23 055709 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/23/5/055709
Byeonghee Lee1, Craig B Prater2 and William P King1,3
Show affiliationsWe report Lorentz force-induced actuation of a silicon microcantilever having an integrated resistive heater. Oscillating current through the cantilever interacts with the magnetic field around a NdFeB permanent magnet and induces a Lorentz force that deflects the cantilever. The same current induces cantilever heating. With AC currents as low as 0.2 mA, the cantilever can be oscillated as much as 80 nm at resonance with a DC temperature rise of less than 5 °C. By comparison, the AC temperature variation leads to a thermomechanical oscillation that is about 1000 times smaller than the Lorentz deflection at the cantilever resonance. The cantilever position in the nonuniform magnetic field affects the Lorentz force-induced deflection, with the magnetic field parallel to the cantilever having the largest effect on cantilever actuation. We demonstrate how the cantilever actuation can be used for imaging, and for measuring the local material softening temperature by sensing the contact resonance shift.
Issue 5 (10 February 2012)
Received 16 August 2011, in final form 29 November 2011
Published 11 January 2012
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