Investigation of scratching nano grooves on aluminum film

A mechanical machining method, scratch, is used to fabricate nano grooves in this investigation. The nanoindentation instrument with a lateral force module, which has high resolution three dimensional displacement and force sensors and actuators, is utilized to conduct the scratch tests. A Berkovich indenter with a sharp triangular pyramid diamond tip, whose tip radius is less than 50 nm, is used as a scriber to scratch aluminum film in these tests. To shape grooves, successful generation of chips to efficiently remove the material is crucial, and is affected by both scratch direction and depth. It is found that scratch the material by single face of the tip is the best direction to efficiently generate the chips. Moreover, the chips are usually attached to the end of the grooves and still needed to be removed. UV curing material is coated on the scratched sample, and is then separated from the sample after UV curing process. It is shown to be a good method to separate the chips from the sample.