Fundamental investigation of the wear progression of silicon atomic force microscope probes

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a key instrument in nanotechnology; however, AFM probe wear is a critical concern with AFM-based technologies. In this work, the wear progression of silicon AFM probes with different radii was thoroughly explored under various normal forces and sliding speeds. The results showed that the initial wear coefficient increased as the normal force increased. However, after a certain sliding distance, the wear coefficient was stable due to the flattening of the probe even with increasing normal force. It was also observed that the wear coefficient decreased with increasing probe radius and the wear of the probe increased as the sliding speed increased. From the overall results, it was concluded that the contact pressure plays a significant role in wear progression and may be responsible for a lower wear coefficient even with increasing adhesion forces due to wear. The wear rate was found to have an exponential dependence on contact stress, as proposed in recent literatures.