The new generation of strained silicon nitride resonators harbors great promise for scanning force microscopy, especially when combined with the extensive toolbox of cavity optomechanics. However, accessing a mechanical resonator inside an optical cavity with a scanning tip is challenging. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a cavity-based scanning force microscope based on a silicon nitride membrane sensor. We overcome geometric constraints by making use of the extended nature of the mechanical resonator normal modes, which allows us to spatially separate the scanning and readout sites of the membrane. Our microscope is geared towards low-temperature applications in the zeptonewton regime, such as nanoscale nuclear spin detection and imaging.
@article{arxiv.2406.07171,
title = {Enhancing Membrane-Based Scanning Force Microscopy Through an Optical Cavity},
author = {Thomas Gisler and David Hälg and Vincent Dumont and Shobhna Misra and Letizia Catalini and Eric C. Langman and Albert Schliesser and Christian L. Degen and Alexander Eichler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.07171},
year = {2024}
}