Multidomain lithium niobate microcantilever for smart biosensor

TL;DR

This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of multidomain lithium niobate microcantilevers for potential use as smart biosensors, utilizing piezoelectric excitation and optical detection methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fabrication process for multidomain lithium niobate cantilevers and demonstrates their application in real-time biosensing.

Findings

Cantilever vibrations can be excited and detected via piezoelectric and optical methods.

Chemical layers on cantilevers are independently detected through spectral and vibrational shifts.

The approach enables potential real-time biosensing applications.

Abstract

Fabrication of the bimorph lithium niobate cantilevers involves a micro machining of a z-cut wafer to create a multidomain structure. After etching, the bimorph ferroelectric cantilevers are fabricated at the locations near interdomain walls. Cantilever vibrations are excited by rf voltage due to piezoelectric effect in a ferroelectric chip, and optical detection is employed to pickup the vibrations. The self-assembling layers of two different Silanes are chemically deposited on the micro cantilevers. The layers are detected independently by two methods including a low frequency shift of cantilever natural vibrations, and Raman spectral lines from the Silane layers. Possible applications include smart biosensors in a real time domain.