Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Size-related plasticity effects in AFM silicon cantilever tips

Published

Author(s)

Malgorzata Kopycinska-Mueller, Roy H. Geiss, Donna C. Hurley

Abstract

We are developing dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques to determine nanoscale elastic properties. Atomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) makes use of the resonant frequencies of an AFM cantilever while its tip contacts the sample surface at a given static load. Our methods involve nanosized silicon probes with tip radius R ranging from approximately 10 nm to 150 nm. The resulting radius of contact between the tip and the sample is less than 20 nm. However, the contact stress can be greater than a few tens of GPa, exceeding the theoretical yield strength of silicon by a factor of two to four. Our AFAM experiments indicate that, contrary to expectation, tips can sometimes withstand such stresses without fracture. We subjected ten tips to the same sequence of AFAM experiments. Each tip was brought into contact with a fused quartz sample at different static loads. The load was systematically increased from about 0.4 υN to 6 υN. Changes in tip geometry were observed in images acquired in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) between the individual AFAM experiments. All of the tips with R < 10 nm broke during the first AFAM experiments at static loads less than 1.6 υN. Tips with R > 40 nm plastically deformed under such loads. However, a group of tips with R from 25 nm to 30 nm neither broke nor deformed during the tests. In order to reach higher contact stresses, two additional tips with similar values of R were used in identical experiments on nickel and sapphire samples. Although the estimated stresses exceeded 40 GPa, we did not observe any tip fracture events. Our qualitative observations agree with more systematic studies performed by other groups on various nano-structures. The results emphasize the necessity of understanding the mechanics of nanometer-scaled bodies and the impact of size effects on measurements of mechanical properties on such scales.
Volume
924
Conference Dates
April 17-21, 2006
Conference Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Conference Title
Materials Research Society 2006 Spring Meeting

Keywords

AFAM, AFM, plastic deformation, silicon AFM tips, size effects

Citation

Kopycinska-Mueller, M. , Geiss, R. and Hurley, D. (2006), Size-related plasticity effects in AFM silicon cantilever tips, Materials Research Society 2006 Spring Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50330 (Accessed October 15, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created April 16, 2006, Updated October 12, 2021