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This paper reports the development of microcantilevers capable of self-heating and Lorentz-force actuation, and demonstrates applications to thermal topography imaging. Electrical current passing through a U-shaped cantilever in the presence of a magnetic field induces a Lorentz force on the cantilever free end, resulting in cantilever actuation. This same current flowing through a resistive heater induces a controllable temperature increase. We present cantilevers designed for large actuation forces for a given cantilever temperature increase. We analyze the designs of two new cantilevers, along with a legacy cantilever design. The cantilevers are designed to have a spring constant of about 1.5 N m−1, a resonant frequency near 100 kHz, and self-heating capability with temperature controllable over the range 25–600 °C. Compared to previous reports on self-heating cantilevers, the Lorentz–thermal cantilevers generate up to seven times as much Lorentz force and two times as much oscillation amplitude. When used for thermal topography imaging, the Lorentz–thermal cantilevers can measure topography with a vertical resolution of 0.2 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]