New scanning tunneling microscopy tip for measuring surface topography

Electron‐beam deposition inside scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to prepare a new scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip [electron‐beam deposited (EBD) tip] which has a submicron diameter and a long straight sidewall. An EBD tip as small as less than 0.1 μm in diameter can be formed with careful beam focusing. This EBD tip is formed to be capable of providing a low‐distortion STM image of deep grooves, and is quite useful in topographic measurements of microfabricated patterns.