Investigation of the Transition from Local Anodic Oxidation to Electrical Breakdown During Nanoscale Atomic Force Microscopy Electric Lithography of Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite

Abstract

As one of the tip-based top-down nanoscale machining methods, atomic force microscopy (AFM) electric lithography is capable of directly generating flexible nanostructures on conductive or semi-conductive sample surfaces. In this work, distinct fabrication mechanisms and mechanism transition from local anodic oxidation (LAO) to electrical breakdown (BD) in the AFM nanoscale electric lithography of the highly oriented pyrolytic graphite sample surface was studied. We provide direct evidence of the transition process mechanism through the detected current-voltage (I-V) curve. Characteristics of the fabrication results under the LAO, transition, and BD regions involving the oxide growth rate or material removal rate and AFM probe wear are analyzed in detail. These factors are of great significance for improving the machining controllability and expanding its potential applications.

Atomic and Close-to-Atomic Scale Manufacturing: A Review on Atomic Layer Removal Methods Using Atomic Force Microscopy

“…Electrochemical etching using AFM tip over HOPG surface to obtain atomic-scale machining has been reported in earlier studies [76,131,132]. Since only a few works have been performed on AFM machining over HOPG in recent years, we have mentioned some of the earlier works before 2010.…”

“…This includes the effects of machining performance on fabrication mechanism and transition from LAO to electrical breakdown during lithography. Yang and Lin [131] performed such an experiment to understand the machining performance and the transitions like the above mentioned on HOPG. They have used a Si probe coated with conductive TiN films.…”

Comparison of Structure Stability of Graphene and Mxene by Peak Force Tapping Mode of Atomic Force Microscope

“…别进行结构和成分分析，发现随着温度的升高，其成分和物相均发生了改变 [14] ；或者利用(扫描电镜)SEM 观察材料的分层结构完整或者塌陷 [15] ，从而来判断结构的稳定性。上述的这些方法操作过程繁琐，不利于 快速便捷检测。所以，本文提出一种利用原子力显微镜(Atomic Force Microscope，AFM)来快速分析二维 材料稳定性的方法。 原子力显微镜是由扫描隧道显微镜(Scanning Tunneling Microscope，STM)发展而来，但与 STM 检测 隧穿电流不同的是，AFM 的测试是基于探针与样品之间的范德华作用力，因此，不受样品导电性质影响， 可用于绝缘体、半导体、导体的研究 [16][17][18] 。其成像原理是当探针在样品表面进行扫描时，探针与样品间的 作用力会使探针悬臂发生偏转，光电探测器通过收集悬臂梁的弯曲度或偏转度，经计算机处理，可生成表 面形貌的图像。通常而言，AFM 的成像模式包括接触模式(Contact Mode) [19] [20][21][22] [23,24] 1 实验材料与方法 本实验所运用的石墨烯是通过还原氧化石墨的方法获得的：首先采用 Hummer's 方法 [25] 制备出氧化石 墨烯产物，所得产物用稀盐酸洗涤后，放置在 80 ℃的真空干燥箱中真空干燥 72 h。然后，取少量干燥的氧 [26,27] 。 二维材料 V2C MXene 的制备 [5] ：通过从 V2AlC 粉末中蚀刻 Al 制成的。其中，V2AlC 是将钒粉，铝粉 [29] ，从图 3(l)可知本实验中二维材料 V2C MXene 的高度约为 4.5 nm 左右，说明并非是单层结 [30] 。其次，由于氢氟酸的强腐蚀性，与 氢氟酸直接接触的表面容易产生缺陷，如原子空位 [31] 。因此，由于上述两种情况的存在，导致材料表面结…”