Scanning probe microscope

Abstract

A scanning probe microscope capable of controlling a decrease of the resolution of an objective lens disposed in the scanning probe microscope, and capable of easily carrying out the adjustment of an optical axis of an optical lever using the objective lens. The scanning probe microscope includes: a cantilever having a probe; a light source part radiating beams; a first reflective part reflecting an incident beam (L0) and guiding the incident beam to a reflective surface; a light receiving part receiving the beams; a second reflective part reflecting a reflected beam (L1) and guiding the reflected beam to the light receiving part; and an objective lens disposed to face the cantilever and adopted to observe and capture an area around the cantilever, the objective lens having the number of openings of NA, wherein the first reflective part is disposed at a position between the objective lens and the cantilever. The first reflective part is configured so that the formed angle between the optical path of the incident beam (L0) and the optical axis (O) of the objective lens is NA (NA=n.sin[theta]), wherein [theta] represents an opening angle (degrees), and the n represents the refractive index of the medium between the objective lens and the cantilever.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a scanning probe microscope for measuring various physical property information such as surface shape and viscoelasticity of a sample by bringing a probe close to the surface of the sample and scanning. Background technique [0002] In a scanning probe microscope (SPM: Scanning Probe Microscope), a probe attached to the tip of a cantilever approaches or contacts the surface of a sample to measure the surface shape of the sample. As such a scanning probe microscope, a so-called optical lever system is known in which laser light is irradiated to the back surface of the tip of a cantilever and the reflected light is detected. In the optical lever method, the position shift of the reflected light of the light irradiated on the cantilever is detected as the displacement of the cantilever, and the sample surface is scanned by feedback control so that the displacement amount of the cantilever is kept constant. Then, using thi...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, in the technique described in Patent Document 2, when the optical axis is adjusted, the laser beam is irradiated and reflected outside the field of view of the optical microscope, so it is impossible to directly observe the laser beam with the optical microscope.

Therefore, it is necessary to scatter the laser light using a scattering plate or the like and introduce it into the field of view of the optical microscope, and it may be difficult to adjust the optical axis.

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