On the deformation mechanism of SiC under nano-scratching: an experimental investigation

Authors

Yang He¹ , Jiahao Hu¹ , Zhen Li¹ , Liangchi Zhang¹

1. Southern University of Science and Technology

Conference / event

24th International Conference on Wear of Materials, April 2023 (Banff, Canada)

Poster summary

SiC is an important semiconductor but is difficult to machine due to its high hardness and low fracture toughness. The deformation mechanisms of SiC subjected to single-point cutting is so far unclear. This paper aims to clarify such mechanisms by carrying out experimental investigations at similar length and load scales to those based on molecular dynamics. To this end, nano-scratching tests were conducted on AFM. Diamond AFM tips of the radius of 10 nm and 60 nm were used as the single-point nano-scratching tool on the surfaces of 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC single crystals with oxide amorphous layer. The investigation revealed that the subsurface deformation was mainly caused by amorphous phase transformation. Dislocations were rarely found and no crack emerged. This study then identified that under nano-scratching, the main mechanism of material removal of a single crystalline SiC is via amorphous phase transformation.

Keywords

SiC, Nanoscratching, Deformation mechanism, Subsurface analysis

Research areas

Nanoengineering, Mechanical Engineering, Material Sciences

References

1. D. Nakamura, et al. Nature, 430 (2004)1009-1012.
2. Z. Wu, et al. Acta Mater., 182 (2020) 60-67.
3. Z. Wu, et al. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 90 (2021) 58-65.

Funding

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (No. 52293401)
2. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Cross-Scale Manufacturing Mechanics Project (No. ZDSYS20200810171201007)
3. Guangdong Specific Discipline Project (No. 2020ZDZX2006)
4. Shenzhen Science and Technology Program Project (No. RCBS20210706092216025)

Supplemental files

No data provided

Additional information

Competing interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and / or analyzed during the current study are available elsewhere (e.g., repository).
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043164823002545

Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2023 He et al. This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.