Nanotribological characterization system by AFM based controlled pushing

Using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) probe as a nanomanipulator, nano scale objects, especially nanoparticles, are pushed on substrates for understanding the object-substrate friction behavior in any environment. Two nanoparticle friction characterization methods are proposed in this paper: (1) Sliding the particle on the substrate while it is bonded on a microfabricated cantilever, (2) Nanorobotic pushing of the particle with the sharp tip of a microfabricated AFM cantilever. Modeling of these methods are realized and experiments are conducted for the latter method using a piezoresistive AFM cantilever. 500 nm radius gold-coated latex particles are pushed on a silicon substrate. Preliminary results show that different frictional behavior such as sliding, rolling, and rotation can be observed, and frictional coefficients can be measured using these techniques at the nano scale