Fabrication of bend optical fibre probes by heated pulling combined with chemica l ething

In this paper,a fabrication method for the bi-functional bend optical fiber probe which is the key element of atomic force/photon scanning tunnel microscope (AF/PSTM)system,is described.The heated pulling combined with dynamic/static two-s teps chemical etching method is proposed and developed.Using this method,we have made the AF/PSTM bend optical fibre probe.The bend angle of the probe is about 150 degrees;the radius of curvature at the top end is better than 100nm;the cone angle varies from 60 to 90 degrees.The bi-functional bend optical fiber probe i s used in our newly developed AF/PSTM system.The optical and topographic images are obtained simultaneously and the image separation is realized.