Mechanical cooling of AFM cantilevers

Abstract:
We have investigated techniques applicable to current standard atomic force micorscopy. Using intermodal coupling in commercially available cantilevers, we have proven that it is possible to reduce the Q factor of the cantilever’s first vibrationa mode (omega1 = π x 68.787 KHz) from 17500 to 12000. Simultaneously, the effective temperature of the mode was reduced by an order of magnitude from room temperature. This is possible by coupling the first and the second flexural mode(omega2 = 2pi x 438.04 KHz) with an excitation tone at their eigenfrequency difference (omegap = 2pi x 369.253 KHz).