Fabrication and characteristics of piezoelectric PZT cantilever for high speed atomic force microscopy

A PZT actuator integrated onto cantilever structure was fabricated for high speed atomic force microscopy (AFM). Five different electrodes were used to investigate the effect of top electrodes on the adhesion and the electrical properties in the PZT capacitors. The PZT capacitors with RuO2 top electrodes exhibited the best characteristics of five electrodes. The tip deflection and the resonant frequency of the PZT actuator were 11 mum at 10V and 79 kHz, respectively. The PZT actuator provided much better AFM image quality and imaging speed than those done by using the conventional bulk PZT tube scanner. The creep distortion in the AFM image was greatly improved by using the high speed PZT film actuator.