Theoretical study on thermal response of bimaterial microcantilevers of different coating materials

What is it about?

Bilayer microcantilever is a versatile tool in thermal and bio-sensing that responses relying on the mismatch between the two constituting materials. The cantilever response, such as the deflection and resonance frequency shift, could be involved when the cantilever is in contact with an arbitrary heat source in the ambient environment. In this study, the thermally induced deflection will be theoretically examined assuming a heat source locating at various positions on the cantilever. The combined contributions of the heat absorption, thermal conductivity, and material rigidity on thermal deflection will be revealed. Selecting an optimal spot position leads to 1.5 times enhancement of the cantilever deflection in comparison to the thermal excitation at the cantilever end in conventional experiments, which implies a significant increase in thermal sensitivity. Furthermore, response of cantilevers of different coating materials of Au, Al, Cu, or Ni have been examined and shown a dominant sensitivity of Al- and Ni- over Cu- and Au-coated cantilevers. These results could help to explain recently ex

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