US Patent 7388199 - Nanotube scanning probe tip with contamination film removal

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7388199.html

In order to inspect high aspect ratio structures on the nanometer scale with reliability carbon nanotubes have been used as the tips of atomic force microscopes. In order to increase the conductivity and bonding strength of the nanotubes to the AFMs this patent teaches a removal of a contamination film formed during the connection of the nanotube to the AFM. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of producing a probe comprised of a nanotube, a base holding the nanotube, and a bonding means for bonding said nanotube to said base, which method comprises performing attaching of said nanotube and said base under observation by an observing means and, at a stage before bonding by said bonding means, stripping a contamination film formed by said observing means.