Piezoelectric bimorph-based shear force microscopy for the construction of noble metal plasmonic structures in air

In this article, we present an alternative method to directly manipulate the noble metal structures in air. The method is carried out based on a home-made shear force microscope, which mainly consists of a fiber probe-bimorph beam shear force sensor, a scanning probe microscope controller, and a nano-positioning stage. The magnitude of the probe-sample interaction forces as a function of the set-point ratio is estimated, which shows that the magnitude of the forces is inversely proportional to the set-point ratio. The microscopic imaging and manipulation can be realized at the higher and lower set-point values, respectively. Typical results of imaging at the set-point ratio of larger than 90% and manipulation at that of lower than 60% are demonstrated. The results suggest that this method would provide a promising way to study the relation between plasmonic structures and optical properties on the micro/nano scale.