Zhenjiang Hu

Top-Down Nanomechanical Machining of Three-Dimensional Nanostructures by Atomic Force Microscopy

Aclosed-loop nanoscale precision stagewas integrated with an atomic force microscope (AFM) to mechanically fabricate 3D nanostructures according to predetermined designs, such as 3D human face nanostructures, nanoline arrays of sine-wave and triangular nanostructures, and nanodot arrays of sine-shaped, hemispheric, and concave/convex nanopatterns in a controllable and reproducible fashion. The surface roughness (Ra) of the machined nanostructures is 4 nm. The time consumed to fabricate a single 3D human face nanostructure is less than 10min. Such nanomechanical machining techniques should find more applications in manufacturing nanoscale lens arrays, nanograting, nanomolds, or other nanoscale components with complex 3D geometries. Amajor goal of nanotechnology is the fabrication of active nanostructures and nanodevices with functionalities that cannot be realized at the macro-/microscale. Recently, bottom-up processes have been widely used to fabricate 3D nanostructures in a rational, controllable, and high-throughput manner. For example, biological macromolecule self-assembly has evolved into a very powerful approach to constructing nanostructures by design with massive-parallel fabrication ability and nanometer precision. On the other hand, developing top-down machining techniques capable of fabricating nanostructures has been left behind. One of the grand challenges in nanotechnology is to machine 3D nanostructures in a controllable and reproducible fashion. This requires the combination of two functionalities: manipulating and machin-

Effect of cantilever deformation and tip-sample contact area on AFM nanoscratching

The present work investigates the effect of cantilever deformation and tip-sample contact area on the performance of atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based scratching tests. Nanoscratching tests are carried out using a pyramidal diamond tip on aluminum alloy surfaces. Three typical AFM cantilever deformation states are illustrated, and the actual normal loads applied on the surface of the sample are obtained using a new method. A theoretical model for AFM-based nanoscratching using a three-sided pyramidal tip is also established to calculate the effect of the tip-sample contact area for different scratching directions. The corresponding theoretical normal loads can be obtained with this model. Experimental and theoretical results are compared for the normal loads at an expected machined depth, with different scratching directions. The contact length between the chip and the rake face of the tip is found to be the key factor leading to an increase in the tip-sample contact area. This results in an actual norm...

Controlled nanodot fabrication by rippling polycarbonate surface using an AFM diamond tip

The single scratching test of polymer polycarbonate (PC) sample surface using an atomic force microscope (AFM) diamond tip for fabricating ripple patterns has been studied with the focus on the evaluation of the effect of the tip scratching angle on the pattern formation. The experimental results indicated that the different oriented ripples can be easily machined by controlling the scratching angles of the AFM. And, the effects of the normal load and the feed on the ripples formation and their periods were also studied. Based on the ripple pattern formation, we firstly proposed a two-step scratching method to fabricate controllable and oriented complex three-dimensional (3D) nanodot arrays. These typical ripple formations can be described via a stick-slip and crack formation process.

A Leveling Method Based on Current Feedback Mode of Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

Substrate leveling is an essential but neglected instrumental technique of scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). In this technical note, we provide an effective substrate leveling method based on the current feedback mode of SECM. By using an air-bearing rotary stage as the supporter of an electrolytic cell, the current feedback presents a periodic waveform signal, which can be used to characterize the levelness of the substrate. Tuning the adjusting screws of the tilt stage, substrate leveling can be completed in minutes by observing the decreased current amplitude. The obtained high-quality SECM feedback curves and images prove that this leveling technique is valuable in not only SECM studies but also electrochemical machining.

Fabrication of nanochannels with ladder nanostructure at the bottom using AFM nanoscratching method

This letter presents a novel atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanomanufacturing method combining the tip scanning with the high-precision stage movement to fabricate nanochannels with ladder nanostructure at the bottom by continuous scanning with a fixed scan size. Different structures can be obtained according to the matching relation of the tip feeding velocity and the precision stage moving velocity. This relationship was first studied in detail to achieve nanochannels with different ladder nanostructures at the bottom. Machining experiments were then performed to fabricate nanochannels on an aluminum alloy surface to demonstrate the capability of this AFM-based fabrication method presented in this study. Results show that the feed value and the tip orientation in the removing action play important roles in this method which has a significant effect on the machined surfaces. Finally, the capacity of this method to fabricate a large-scale nanochannel was also demonstrated. This method has the potential to advance the existing AFM tip-based nanomanufacturing technique of the formation these complex structures by increasing the removal speed, simplifying the processing procedure and achieving the large-scale nanofabrication.

Electrochemical mechanical micromachining based on confined etchant layer technique

The confined etchant layertechnique (CELT) has been proved an effective electrochemical microfabrication method since its first publication at Faraday Discussions in 1992. Recently, we have developed CELT as an electrochemical mechanical micromachining (ECMM) method by replacing the cutting tool used in conventional mechanical machining with an electrode, which can perform lathing, planing and polishing. Through the coupling between the electrochemically induced chemical etching processes and mechanical motion, ECMM can also obtain a regular surface in one step. Taking advantage of CELT, machining tolerance and surface roughness can reach micro- or nano-meter scale.

Effects of Atomic Force Microscope Silicon Tip Geometry on Large-Scale Nanomechanical Modification of the Polymer Surface

The shape of an atomic force microscope (AFM) silicon tip has a significant effect on the mechanical modification of the polymer surface, especially for a longer sliding distance of from several to several hundreds of millimeters. In this work, a pyramidal silicon tip was used to cut into the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) surface, forming nanogrooves with a linear sliding distance of about 80 mm and wear box structures with a total tip sliding distance of 1,024 mm. The effects of the tip edges and the tip radius on the form of the wear debris chips, wear depth, and debris transferred to the tip were investigated. The experimental results showed that four sides of the tip influenced the morphology of the removed material. Adhesion appeared to play a role in the tip wear mechanism by successive removal of SiO2 layers during transfer of adhered PMMA from the tip to the surface. The tip radius generally increased with sliding distance. Simultaneously, adhesion of the removed materials to the tip induced a larger tip radius and a sharper tip was revealed as dropping off of the materials during the test from time to time. Thus, with the same normal load the worn tip may induce failure of the machining process. The results presented in this study provide insight into long-term nanoscratch/wear and nanomechanical machining of glassy polymer surfaces with a silicon AFM tip.

Investigation of the nanoscale elastic recovery of a polymer using an atomic force microscopy-based method

An atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based method to reveal the elastic recovery behavior of a polymer material after the nanoscratching process is presented. The machined depth during scratching is obtained by monitoring the position of the piezoceramic tube (PZT) of the AFM system. By comparison with the measured depth of the nanogroove, the elastic recovery of the machined depth can be achieved. Experiments are also undertaken to study the effects of the scratching velocity and the applied normal load on the elastic recovery of the machined depth when scratching on polycarbonate (PC). Results show that the elastic recovery rate has a logarithmically proportional relationship to the scratching velocity, while it has little change with the variation of the applied normal load. In addition, the constitutive model of the polymer material is also used to verify the obtained conclusions, indicating that this is a potential method for measuring the elastic recovery of the material under the mechanical process on the nanoscale.

Machining complex three-dimensional nanostructures with an atomic force microscope through the frequency control of the tip reciprocating motions

A novel method relying on atomic force microscope (AFM) tip based nanomachining is presented to enable the fabrication of microchannels that exhibit complex three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale floor surface geometries. To achieve this, reciprocating lateral displacements of the tip of an AFM probe are generated, while a high-precision stage is also actuated to move in a direction perpendicular to such tip motions. The width and length of microchannels machined in this way are determined by the amplitude of the tip motion and the stage displacement, respectively. Thus, the processing feed can be changed during the process as it is defined by the combined control of the frequency of the tip reciprocating motions and the stage speed. By employing the built-in force feedback loop of conventional AFM systems during such operations, the variation of the feed leads to different machined depths. Thus, this results in the capability to generate complex 3D nanostructures, even for a given normal load, which is set by the AFM user prior to the start of the process. In this paper, the fabrication of different microchannels with floor surfaces following half triangular, triangular, sinusoidal, and top-hat waveforms is demonstrated. It is anticipated that this method could be employed to fabricate complex nanostructures more readily compared to traditional vacuum-based lithography processes.

An AFM-based methodology for measuring axial and radial error motions of spindles

This paper presents a novel atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based methodology for measurement of axial and radial error motions of a high precision spindle. Based on a modified commercial AFM system, the AFM tip is employed as a cutting tool by which nano-grooves are scratched on a flat surface with the rotation of the spindle. By extracting the radial motion data of the spindle from the scratched nano-grooves, the radial error motion of the spindle can be calculated after subtracting the tilting errors from the original measurement data. Through recording the variation of the PZT displacement in the Z direction in AFM tapping mode during the spindle rotation, the axial error motion of the spindle can be obtained. Moreover the effects of the nano-scratching parameters on the scratched grooves, the tilting error removal method for both conditions and the method of data extraction from the scratched groove depth are studied in detail. The axial error motion of 124 nm and the radial error motion of 279 nm of a commercial high precision air bearing spindle are achieved by this novel method, which are comparable with the values provided by the manufacturer, verifying this method. This approach does not need an expensive standard part as in most conventional measurement approaches. Moreover, the axial and radial error motions of the spindle can both be obtained, indicating that this is a potential means of measuring the error motions of the high precision moving parts of ultra-precision machine tools in the future.