Thermomechanical Probes at the Nanometer Scale

William Paul King
Kritzer Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract
This talk describes fundamental measurements on and applications of heated atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers.  The cantilevers can reach temperature above 1000 C and can be heated as fast as 1 usec.  When the heated tip is in contact with a surface, the ultra small hot spot is an excellent tool for nanometer-scale manufacturing, metrology, and surface science measurements.  In one application, the heated probe tip can be used like a miniature soldering iron.  In another application, the cantilever heaters can also be used as sensors, where the heating can be used to modulate cantilever resonant frequency or to clean and refresh the cantilever surface.  Nanometer-scale heated probes can be used to measure spatially resolved glass transition temperature, decomposition temperature, and mechanical properties with later resolution 50 nm and in films as thin as 10 nm.

William P. King is Associate Professor and Kritzer Faculty Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  He received the Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University (2002).  Between 1999 and 2001, he spent 16 months in the Micro/NanoMechanics Group of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, working on "Millipede" thermomechanical data storage.  He is the winner of the NSF CAREER award (2003), the DOE PECASE award (2005), and the ONR Young Investigator Award (2007).  In 2006 he was named to the TR35 - Technology Review Magazine's list of the most innovative people under the age of 35.  He is the winner of an R&D 100 Award (2007) and sits on the advisory board at 7 companies.  He is a Fellow of the Defense Sciences Research Council.

Friday, May 9th
Berger Auditorium, Skirkanich Hall
10:30 – 11:30 a.m.