Nano Express
Nanopatterning on silicon surface using atomic force microscopy with diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated Si probe
1 Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, People's Republic of China
2 Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes SA 5095, Australia
3 School of Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-6106, USA
Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:518 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-6-518
Published: 2 September 2011Abstract
Atomic force microscope (AFM) equipped with diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated Si probe has been used for scratch nanolithography on Si surfaces. The effect of scratch direction, applied tip force, scratch speed, and number of scratches on the size of the scratched geometry has been investigated. The size of the groove differs with scratch direction, which increases with the applied tip force and number of scratches but decreases slightly with scratch speed. Complex nanostructures of arrays of parallel lines and square arrays are further fabricated uniformly and precisely on Si substrates at relatively high scratch speed. DLC-coated Si probe has the potential to be an alternative in AFM-based scratch nanofabrication on hard surfaces.
