Laser heating and detection of bilayer microcantilevers for non-contact thermodynamic measurements

We describe a method for optical detection (frequency and position) and heating of bilayer microcantilevers (BMCs) to high temperatures at fast heating rates (106 °C/s to 109 °C/s) for non-contact thermodynamic measurements of small quantities of materials in the femtogram range. The current experimental apparatus with a 2 μm × 10 μm BMC achieves a deflection sensitivity of 0.1 Å, heating rate of 3.0 × 106 °C/s, and heat sensitivity of 18 pJ in a 3 kHz bandwidth in air. By measuring the resonant frequency shift after sample loading, we achieve a mass resolution of 2.67 fg.