406 Prakt. Met. Sonderband 38 (2006) 
represented in Fig 4. After Ag coating of a tip, the coating was removed partially to leave 2.3 
only a remnant film fraction with particle-like features at the tip apex. 
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a 
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6a 
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Fig. 4: FIB sharpened tip with removed Cr/Ag coating in a region of about 500 nm from the 
tip end to achieve a particle-like tip apex. 
Th 
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Finally, Fig. 5 shows as an example of a different application the result of wire etching tor 
applying the technique described in Fig. 1a with reduced angle o to achieve a flat tip. This les 
flat tip was further cut by FIB to enable shadowing of a laser beam for optical SPM the 
applications. Holes of different diameter acting as aperture were FIB milled into the wire 
ends. After mounting such a tip to a tuning fork, the holes can be positioned with nm 
accuracy close to the surface of a sample of interest. 
Fig. 5: Aperture for SNOM produced from a W wire applying etching and FIB milling. Sc 
sai 
AF 
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