Interface sensing and cutting of ultra-thin film based on UV-assisted AFM

Ultrasonic vibration (UV)-assisted method, as an innovative nanomachining technology, has competitive advantages compared to traditional atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanomachining methods. However, the UV-assisted machining process by AFM is still an open loop control method for cutting depth and sample mechanical properties. Furthermore, the real-time material/interface sensing is still absent when cutting on ultra-thin film. Detection method of machining object (thin film or substrate) remains an obstacle for AFM machining. Here we introduce an ultra-thin film interface sensing and cutting method based on UV-assisted AFM to realize the material/interface detection on the process of nano-machining. This new approach for sensing and cutting ultra-thin film is validated by our experimental results conducting on ultra-thin films with different thickness at nanoscale.