Cleaning of cantilevers for atomic force microscopy in supercritical carbon dioxide

A method of nondestructive cleaning of probes for atomic force microscopy (AFM) in supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) was suggested. The artificial organic contaminant (polyethylmethacrylate) was removed with SC-CO2 without any damage to the structure of the probe and the initial characteristics of the probe were restored. The Raman and scanning electron microscopy studies showed that the probe surface was completely cleaned as a result of treatment in SC-CO2; the bands of the initial contaminant vanished from the Raman spectra. The images of the calibration gratings obtained using the probes cleaned in SC-CO2 were more distinct, with clear-cut boundaries of the objects and reduced numbers of “artefact” bands compared with images obtained with the initial nonused probes.