Patent ID: 8109135

Claim:
Cantilever assembly for scanning a sample, comprising a cantilever having a length of 1 μm to 100 μm and having a cantilever tip, the cantilever having a front side facing the sample and a backside facing away from that sample, said cantilever being mounted to a rigid support and being provided on said back side facing away from the sample with an area of a high reflectance material, this area having a boundary sloping towards said support, wherein extensions (c, Δc) of the area and the boundary towards said support fulfill the condition c/Δc≧ 1, wherein c denotes an extension of the area of the high reflectance material in a direction towards the support, and Δc denotes an extension of the sloped boundary of the area of the high reflectance material in a direction towards the support.