Whispering gallery mode ultrasonically coupled scanning probe microscopy
AssigneeState of Oregon acting by and through the State Board of Higher Education on behalf of Portland State University
InventorsAndres H. La Rosa Flores, Richard Nordstrom, Sudhaprasanna Kumar Padigi
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Abstract
Scanning probe microscopes include a probe tip coupled to a tuning fork or other acoustic resonator so as to apply a shear force when contacted to a specimen surface based on an applied acoustic signal. A secondary ultrasonic transducer is in acoustic communication with the specimen and a resonant structure. Probe tip-specimen displacement can be detected based on whispering gallery mode ultrasonic waves in the resonant structure using the secondary transducer, and such displacements maintained using feedback control based on whispering gallery mode acoustic wave magnitude.
Claims10
A scanning microscope, comprising:
- a probe having a probe tip for contacting a specimen;
- a stage configured to provide a selected probe tip-specimen displacement;
- a first acoustic transducer coupled to the probe;
- a resonant cavity acoustically coupled to the probe tip;
- a second acoustic transducer acoustically coupled to detect acoustic waves in the resonant cavity;
- and
- a first transducer driver configured to produce an acoustic vibration of the probe tip with the first acoustic transducer at a probe tip frequency, wherein the resonant cavity dimensions are based on the probe tip frequency.
A scanning microscope, comprising:
- a probe having a probe tip for contacting a specimen;
- a stage configured to provide a selected probe tip-specimen displacement;
- a first acoustic transducer coupled to the probe;
- a resonant cavity acoustically coupled to the probe tip;
- a second acoustic transducer acoustically coupled to detect acoustic waves in the resonant cavity, wherein the resonant cavity includes a cylindrical section having a diameter associated with a probe tip drive frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.