Nanodiamond-silicon hybrid cantilever array for chemical sensing

Diamond offers attractive properties as a material for microelectromechanical (MEMS) chemical sensors, but is difficult to process in comparison with silicon. A method for attaching nanodiamonds, produced by a detonation process, to pre-fabricated and mounted Si cantilever devices is described. It is shown that this hybrid device has a resonant frequency shifted by down, compared to Si alone, by around 10% due to a higher spring constant. Interestingly, exposure to ammonia leads to an increase in frequency of around 1%. The mechanisms behind these observations are discussed and the promise for this hybrid cantilever structure for chemical sensor applications highlighted