Fabrication of metallic SPM tips by combining UV nanoimprint lithography and focused ion beam processing

UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is applied for the fabrication of metallic scanning probe microscopy (SPM) tips. The NIL templates are generated by focused ion beam (FIB) processing. The tips are imprinted by UV-NIL using a resist which is a mixture of Ag particles and an UV-curing polymer. After imprinting, tips are further shaped by FIB to achieve a high aspect ratio and a small radius at the apex. The resulting tips are analyzed and methods for increasing the metal-to-polymer ratio are presented and discussed.