Measurement of characteristics of nanometric mechanical oscillators

For the purpose of making a small probe for scanning force microscopy (SFM), we have succeeded in fabricating nanometric oscillators with a tip mass of silicon and a neck of silicon dioxide by micromachining Si-SiO/sub 2/-Si laminated substrates. The size of the head ranged from 100 nm to 3 /spl mu/m and the diameter of the neck range from 10 nm to 200 nm. The resonant frequency is calculated to be in MHz order. Results of the test done by an atomic force microscope built within a scanning electron microscope showed that the oscillators are elastic and strong enough for use as SFM cantilevers.