Electrostatic transfer of sub-micron magnetic particles onto cantilevers using a focused ion beam system.

In this paper, we present a focused-ion-beam-assisted method for preparing magnet tips for magnetic resonance force microscopy measurements. The method electrostatically transfers prefabricated magnetic nanoparticles to microcantilevers, achieving precise control over the magnet overhang past the cantilever leading edge while minimizing the fabrication damage to the leading edge of the tip magnet. We demonstrate successful fabrication of magnets ranging in size from 460 nm to 2.8 μm. These magnets were affixed to two types of cantilevers: silicon cantilevers with a spring constant of 800 μN/m, and single-crystal silicon cantilevers with a spring constant of 30 μN/m. We show that the electrostatic transfer method enables a wide variety of tip shapes, sizes, and materials that were previously not possible with conventional fabrication methods. The transfer procedure allows us to prefabricate the desired particle geometry with minimal ion-beam damage, as confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. We show that the technique is versatile and can be used to fabricate custom-tipped cantilevers for a broader range of scanning probe techniques.