Wear of the AFM diamond tip sliding against silicon

Abstract

Wear of an AFM diamond tip, whose initial radius was 65 nm, sliding against single-crystalline silicon was observed both from the decreasing wear rate of the silicon with increasing number of cycles and from direct imaging of the diamond tip shape using a micro-fabricated Si 3N 4 AFM tip with a nominal radius of about 10–20 nm. It was shown that the assumption, which is usually used in nano-wear testing by a sharp AFM diamond tip, that the diamond tip is too hard to be worn by a softer material introduces an error into the value obtained for the tested material's wear rate. The harder the tested material, the greater is the tip wear, and, therefore, the lower are the contact stress and observed wear rate of the tested material.