Mechanical Manipulation of Hexagonal Phase Boron Nitride Nanowires on the silicon substrate utilizing Atomic Force Microscope

Abstract

Hexagonal phase boron nitride nanowires (BNNWs) with diameter of 3-32 nm were synthesized at room temperature by electron-cyclotron-resonance chemical vapor deposition technique through the upstream Ar plasma cracking of nitrogen, hydrogen and diborane mixed gases. The nanomanipulator system adds a virtual-reality interface to an atomic-force microscope (AFM), thus providing a tool that can be used to image and manipulate nanometer-sized sample in a controlled manner. Computer graphics are used to reconstruct the surface for the user, with color or contours overlaid to indicate additional data sets. In this paper, we report on experiments in which BNNWs are manipulated with AFM on silicon substrate. As the AFM tip scans BNNWs, the interaction forces of pushing and cutting BNNWs are monitored, which in turn can collect information about the frictional, mechanical, and topological properties of BNNWs. When AFM probe pushes and cuts BNNWs, the interaction forces of the probe, BNNWs and silicon substrate are collected from nanomanipulator system. In accordance with information collected from nanomanipulator system, the rupture force and pushing force of individual BNNW on the silicon substrate are 287.51 nN and 160.29 nN, respectively.