An improved arc discharge method is developed to fabricate the carbon nanotube probe. In this method, the silicon probe and the carbon nanotube were manipulated under an optical microscope. When the silicon probe and the carbon nanotube were very close, 30-60 V dc or ae was applied between them, and the carbon nanotube was divided and attached to the end of the silicon probe. Comparing with the arc discharge method, the new method need not coat the silicon probe with metal in advance, which can greatly reduce the fabrication difficulty and cost. The fabricated carbon nanotube probe exhibits the good property of high aspect ratio and can reflect the true topography more accurately than the silicon probe.
An improved arc discharge method is developed to fabricate carbon nanotube probe of atomic force microscopy （AFM） here. First, silicon probe and carbon nanotube are manipulated under an optical microscope by two high precision microtranslators. When silicon probe and carbon nanotube are very close, several tens voltage is applied between them. And carbon nanotube is divided and attached to the end of silicon probe, which mainly due to the arc welding function. Comparing with the arc discharge method before, the new method here needs no coat silicon probe with metal film in advance, which can greatly reduce the fabrication＇s difficulty. The fabricated carbon nanotube probe shows good property of higher aspect ratio and can more accurately reflect the true topography of silicon grating than silicon probe. Under the same image drive force, carbon nanotube probe had less indentation depth on soft triblock copolymer sample than silicon probe. This showed that carbon nanotube probe has lower spring constant and less damage to the scan sample than silicon probe.
