is coated with a thin film of a second material the first and second materials may be the same or they may be different the materials and thicknesses of the respective films are selected so as to create opposing forces to counter the tendency of such cantilevers to bend when a thin film is applied to only one side thereof application_number US 71019196 A description those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description of the present invention is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting other embodiments of the invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons from an examination of the within disclosure adequate magnetic moments for atomic force microscope probe cantilevers areachieved with films of a few hundred angstroms of rare earth magnetic alloys magnetic materials such as neodymium iron boron nd fe bo other magnetic alloys with suitable moments are samarium cobalt and alnico an alloy of aluminum nickel and cobalt they may be used in combination if desired such materials are readily capable of magnetization in the presence of a magnetic field of sufficient magnitude the cantilevers are typically 100 microns long and 20 to 50 microns wide it is therefore not practical to put a layer onto them that is much thicker than a few tenths of a micron since the thickness of the cantilevers is only on the order of a few microns thus the volume of material that can be deposited is limited to 10 16 m 3 or so as will be seen it is desirable to obtain a magnetic.