Ultrasonic elliptical vibration-assisted AFM tip-based nanofabrication on brittle materials

JY Tang and ZH Cao and ZW Li and YL Chen, PRECISION ENGINEERING-JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES FOR PRECISION ENGINEERING AND NANOTECHNOLOGY, 96, 787-802 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.precisioneng.2025.08.002

Ultrasonic elliptical vibration (UEV)-assisted machining is an effective method for machining hard and brittle materials, offering enhanced surface quality and reduced subsurface damage. Atomic force microscope (AFM) tip-based nanofabrication (TBN) is a powerful method for fabricating nanostructures. However, the effectiveness of UEV-assisted machining in TBN systems has not been investigated. In this study, we propose a UEV stage specifically designed for TBN systems, and evaluate its performance on GaAs, silicon and sapphire through a combination of experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Experimental results demonstrate that UEV significantly increases machining depth and width, even on hard materials like sapphire. When the same normal force was applied, only hillocks were formed without UEV, whereas grooves were successfully fabricated on sapphire with UEV assistance. The subsurface amorphous layer was found to be reduced with UEV, and its distribution was observed to be asymmetric. Furthermore, the stress beneath the contact zone of the tip and the sample was transitioned from a hydrostatic to a shear-dominated state, which contributed to the reduction of subsurface damage.

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