Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

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Journal of Manufacturing Processes

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/manpro

Technical paper

AFM probe based nano mechanical scribing of soda-lime glass

M.G. Mostofa, C.I. Park, S.S. Park
Micro Engineering Dynamics Automation Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta,
Canada

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 20 November 2012
Received in revised form 2 May 2013
Accepted 9 May 2013
Available online 12 June 2013
Keywords:
Atomic force microscopy
Ductile cutting
Glass
Nano scribing
Ploughing

a b s t r a c t
In recent years, demands for miniature components have increased due to their reduced size, weight and
energy consumption. In particular, brittle materials such as glass can provide high stiffness, hardness,
corrosion resistance and high-temperature strength for various biomedical and high-temperature applications. In this study, cutting properties and the effects of machining parameters on the ductile cutting
of soda-lime glass are investigated through the nano-scale scratching process. In order to understand
the fundamentals of the material removal mechanism at the atomic scale, such as machined surface
quality, cutting forces and the apparent friction, theoretical investigation along with experimental study
are needed. Scribing tests have been performed using a single crystal diamond atomic force microscope
(AFM) probe as the scratching tool, in order to nd the cutting mechanism of soda-lime glass in the nanoscale. The extended lateral force calibration method is proposed to acquire accurate lateral forces. The
experimental thrust and cutting forces are obtained and apparent friction coefcients are deduced. The
effects of feed rates and the ploughing to shearing transition of soda-lime glass have been investigated.
2013 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Ceramic materials play an important role in modern engineering, especially for high-performance applications, due to their
high stiffness, hardness, corrosion resistance and high-temperature
strength [1]. Some examples include micro gas turbines and
engines, biomedical implants, labs-on-chips, and optical and chemical applications. Among ceramic materials, glass has several
advantages, since it is transparent, resistive against chemicals,
sterilizable and hard. Glass has been widely used to make uidic
channels at the nano/micro scales [2] by providing anodic bonding
for the seal between two glass surfaces.
Conventional photolithographic methods are often used to fabricate micro features on glass substrates. This process works well
for batch productions; however the cost increases when customized fabrications are required in small quantities. In addition,
glass is a non-conductive material, which makes it more difcult to
cut by electric pulse based cutting technology in the nano-scale
[3]. Thus, several researchers have investigated the mechanical
machining of glass materials [4,5].
In nano and micro machining operations, the uncut chip thickness is comparable to the edge radius of the cutting tool and a
large hydrostatic pressure is applied around the cutting edge. This
compressive hydrostatic stress is necessary to prevent crack propagations and this condition is needed for the ductile cutting of brittle

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 4032206959.

E-mail address: simon.park@ucalgary.ca (S.S. Park).

materials, which is naturally provided in micro-/nano-scale cutting operations. Minimum uncut chip thickness (MUCT) denes
the transition between the ploughing and the ductile shearing [6]
for the brittle material. In ploughing region the material is pushed
aside along the cutting area and results large pile-ups (i.e. side
burrs) whereas in ductile shearing, the material is removed as
chip and results less pile-up after machining. For silicon material,
the minimum uncut chip thickness has been reported be approximately 10.1 nm from a scratching test [6] by using AFM probe with
edge radius of 100 nm. The critical uncut chip thickness (CUCT)
which determines the ductile to brittle transition of glass have been
analyzed through taper cutting experiments [7] and by observing
surface cracks and AE signals [8].
Atomic force microscope (AFM) was originally designed for
determining surface topology and metrological purposes, but the
authors and others have used it to fabricate grooves by exerting
high forces [3,9]. In this study, nano-scale machining phenomena
for soda-lime glass scratching was investigated by using a single
crystal diamond AFM probe. The previously employed calibration
procedure for lateral force measurements is augmented by proposing a new extended force balance (EFB) method for the AFM probe
to measure the cutting forces accurately. In addition, the MUCT
was investigated by analyzing the side burr formations. The cutting forces were analyzed to nd the apparent friction coefcients
(FC /FT ) and to observe the feed rate effects in nano-mechanical
cutting process.
An experimental study of the relationship between the applied
forces, apparent friction coefcients and depths, with respect to
different feed rates, have been conducted to provide invaluable

1526-6125/$ see front matter 2013 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Fig. 1. Stress eld around the tip of the tool (a) small depth of cut (b) large depth of cut [14].

information for production of the nano-scale channels on the surface of the glass. The effect of the ploughing to ductile mode cutting
of glass was investigated, observing the pile-up effects after the
scratching process. The proposed method has the potential to be
an alternative method for fabricating custom nano-scale channels
on glass.
2. Ductile cutting of brittle materials
Ductile cutting of brittle materials is the process of machining
these materials at certain cutting conditions that provides plastic
deformation of the workpiece material and leaves a crack free surface [10]. Lawn has investigated [11] an uncut chip thickness (h)
at which brittle material failure during indentation changed from
plastic deformation to fracture and called it critical depth of cut
(hC ). It was conrmed later that the brittle materials have this transition in deformation regime from brittle to ductile as the depth
of cut decreases [12]. The transition from brittle to ductile regime
of cutting is described based on the balance between the surface
energy and the strain energy. It is suggested that, such a transition
in the deformation regime occurs because energy needed for plastic
deformation of brittle material is less than the energy needed for
propagation of pre-existing cracks at small scale cutting geometries
[13].
There are a few hypotheses describing ductile cutting of brittle materials. One of the theories states that the ductile cutting is
a function of the density of defects/dislocations in the workpiece
material and therefore the size of the stress eld. The size of stress
eld depends on the size of uncut chip thickness as depicted in
Fig. 1, smaller chip thickness results in the smaller stress eld containing less defects and produces less cracks compared to the larger
depth of cut; so cutting occurs at the ductile regime and avoids
propagation of cracks by avoiding cleavage initiation at the defects
in the workpiece [14].
Ductile to brittle transition has been shown to be a function
of parameters such as cutting speed and the geometry of the tool
[15]. Large negative rake angle is more favorable since high hydrostatic pressure is exerted on the glass to minimize crack initiations
[16]. Fig. 2 shows the distribution of hydrostatic pressure around
the cutting edge when the edge radius re is comparable to uncut
chip thickness h, resulting in the negative effective rake angle e .
The elastic recovery, her may occur depending on the elastic nature
of workpiece. In addition, brittle materials at higher temperature
also promote ductile cutting [17] which can be explained by higher
fracture toughness at increased temperatures.
With the increase in depth of engagement between the tool and
the workpiece, the interaction between the tool tip and the workpiece is considered in several phases as shown in Fig. 3. In the rst

stage, the forces between the tool tip and the surface causes adhesion friction and the surface deformation occurs in elastic regime. In
the second phase (ploughing), the tool starts to deform the workpiece material plastically. As the engagement depth is increased
further, the tool starts to cut the workpiece and chip formation
starts. The transitional depth between the ploughing and shearing
cutting regime is denoted as the MUCT. In ductile regime or after
exceeding the MUCT, the material is removed as continuous chip
and the nished surface contains fewer amounts of aws. In the
case of brittle material, cracks can initiate and cause decrease in
forces; yet, the discontinuous chips occur due to the brittle nature
of cutting and causes cloudy surface nish which is covered by
residual cracks [14].
3. Experimental setup
A retrotted AFM system (Park System, XE 100) with additional sensors and boards was used for the scratching tests. A
single crystal diamond AFM probe with a tetrahedral geometry
(Microstar TD15952) was utilized as a scratching tool to produce
scratches with small dimensions on the surface of soda-lime glass.
The scratching tests were performed to study the inuence of cutting conditions on soda-lime glass slides (SiO2 73%, Na2 O 14%, CaO
7%, MgO 4%, Al2 O3 2%, VWR Vista Vision 16004-424). The surface
roughness of the glass substrate is the arithmetic mean value Ra ,
which was found to be approximately 0.78 nm. Fig. 4 presents the
schematic of the AFM machining process.
Displacements of the probe are measured through a position
sensitive photodiode (PSPD) by the reected laser from the probe
surface. The high-frequency feedback loop controls the z-scanner
to maintain the desired thrust force (vertical force) during scratching and the exure based piezoelectric XY stage is used for the
workpiece movement. A data acquisition system (Park AFM Signal
Access Module and NI PCI6251) facilitated capturing of signals from

Fig. 2. Hydrostatic pressure around the cutting tip.

M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

627

Fig. 3. Different cutting regime of brittle material depending on the uncut chip thickness.

the AFM and sensors. The temperature during the experiments was
22 C, and the relative humidity was at 9% (Cole-Parmer 03313-86).
The AFM probe that was used for the experimental tests is shown
in Fig. 5a and b. The edge radius of the single crystal diamond probe
was found to be approximately 25 nm as provided by the manufacturer, veried using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) image.
An acoustic emission (AE) sensor (Physical Acoustics Nano30) was
mounted on the workpiece near the scratching point. The AE sensor
can detect elastic waves generated by the release of strain energy
within the loaded system as failure occurs.
The lithographic module of the AFM scanning software was used
for the contact mode, where the probe was held in contact with the
surface. The scratch tests were conducted in lateral directions with
respect to the cantilevers axis such that the torsional bending of the
probe was utilized to measure the lateral forces and thrust forces
which are shown in Fig. 6a. The tests were repeated in the tracing
and retracing directions. The process of scratching was initiated by
dening a scratch line on previously scanned topography.
For the experiments, two different feed rates (1.0 m/s and
5.0 m/s) and varying thrust forces (either constant or ramp forces)
were applied, as summarized in Table 1. Each experimental condition was repeated twice to verify the repeatability. To minimize
the edge effect on the probe, the scratching depth was limited to
less than the tip radius of the AFM probe (25 nm) and Side 2
of the AFM probe, as shown in the Fig. 5b, was used for scratching. After the nano-scale scratch tests were performed, a different
AFM probe with a smaller tip diameter (<10 nm) was used to scan
the surface topology. The non-contact mode was used during the
scanning process to prevent damage to the scratched surfaces.

Table 1
Experimental conditions for scratching tests.
Scratch No.

Type of force

Thrust force (N)

Feed rate (m/s)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Constant force
Constant force
Constant force
Constant force
Constant force
Constant force
Constant force
Constant force
Ramp force
Ramp force
Ramp force
Ramp force

30
30
40
40
50
50
60
60
050
050
060
060

1.0
5.0
1.0
5.0
1.0
5.0
1.0
5.0
1.0
5.0
1.0
5.0

4. Calibration of AFM probe

Calibration of the probe cantilever and the sensitivity of the position sensitive photodiode (PSPD) in the AFM are vital for ensuring
accuracy of force measurements. The AFM stages were rst calibrated using test structures of specied step heights, lengths and
widths (Mikromasch TGZ01, TGZ02, TGZ03). These included 20, 100
and 500 nm steps and 10 nm lengths and widths. The vertical stiffness, KN , of the probe was found to be approximately 163 N/m as
provided by the manufacturer. In order to consider the boundary
condition of the actual experiment, a receptance coupling method
[18] was used combining the nite element analysis (FEA) of the
probe with the boundary condition.

Fig. 4. Schematic AFM probe based nano scratching.

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M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

Fig. 5. Single crystal diamond probe (a) side view and (b) top view.

Fig. 6. Schematic of nano-scale scribing by AFM diamond probe (a) 3D aspect; (b) side view.

To convert voltage signals from the PSPD into thrust (vertical)

and cutting (lateral) forces, FT and FC , lateral calibration (CLat ) and
vertical sensitivity factors were used as:
FT =

KN SN
VN
cos 

FC CLat VL

(1)
K SL
h2t

VL

(2)

where  is the angle of the cantilever measured from the feed direction as shown in Fig. 6b, which was 12 ; VN and VL are the normal
voltage output (AB) and lateral voltage output (CD), respectively,
from the quad PSPD; ht (moment arm) is 109 m; K is the torsional
spring constant; and, SN and SL are the normal (vertical) and lateral
sensitivities, respectively, of the cantilever.
The vertical sensitivity factor, SN , of the PSPD can be obtained
through the forcedistance (fd) curve by bringing the probe down
onto a hard diamond surface as the piezo actuator continues to
move down, causing the angle of the cantilever and voltage reading (AB) to change. The vertical sensitivity is the ratio of cantilever
deection and the corresponding voltage difference obtained from
the PSPD. After nding the vertical sensitivity, the vertical calibration factor can be found by using Eq. (1). The vertical sensitivity
(SN ) was found to be 5.28 108 m/V from the force-displacement
measurement as shown in Fig. 7.
The lateral forces are measured based on the torsional displacement of the probe. It is difcult to obtain the accurate torsional
spring constant, K , from the theory, due to uncertainties associated
with the manufacturing of probe. There are few methods namely
the wedge [19] and the force balance [20] methods to directly
acquire the lateral calibration factor, CLat . The wedge method

requires contact mode scanning of the sample to nd the difference between the frictional force across the at surface, and both
up and down the sloped surface. Scanning experiments have to be
performed for several iterations to identify CLat accurately, and tool
wear might occur as a consequence. The force balance method is
suggested as an alternative, but requires measuring static forcedisplacement curves at different slopes. To simplify the lateral
calibration procedure, an alternative way has been proposed to
obtain lateral calibration factor, which is called the extended force
balance method.
First, the atomic force microscope is calibrated in vertical
direction and for this purpose, force-displacement experiment is
performed to measure the vertical sensitivity of the probe. Then
the vertical calibration factor is calculated by using Eq. (1). The
extended force balance method also relies on the scanning of sloped
artifacts (example shown in Fig. 8a) in the contact mode, but the
surface is scanned forward and backward just once, compared to
the wedge method where multiple scanning is required.

Fig. 7. Forcedisplacement measurement to nd the vertical sensitivity.

M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

629

Fig. 8. (a) Scanned image of the artifact and (b) Schematic of applied force.

The topography of the calibration artifact is shown in the Fig. 8a.

The artifact used in this study is composed of silicone. The extended
force balance method is based on the nding of the normal force
at the sloped surface with respect to the thrust force, as shown
in Fig. 8b. When the probe is dragged on the artifact, as shown in
Fig. 8b, different PSPD voltage signals (CD) are generated, depending on the facets to determine the torsional bending of the probe.
The forces on the normal and parallel planes to the sloped surface can be expressed in following equations:
FT + FC = FN + FU




FX = 0;

FU + FC cos  FT sin  = 0

FY = 0;

FN FT cos  FC sin  = 0

(3)

By equating the sum of forces in both x and y directions and

substituting FN into the above equation, Eq. (4) can be obtained:

FT (sin   cos )
(cos  +  sin )

CLat

(4)

 F   sin   cos  
T
VL

cos  +  sin 

(5)

where FT , , and  represents the applied thrust force, the facet

angle and the friction coefcient between the probe and the calibration artifact, respectively. The facet angle  of the silicon artifact
(Mikromasch TGF 11) was found to be approximately 43.24 of the
facet angle from the AFM scans.
The friction coefcient between the artifact and the probe is
identied using the method suggested by Salvadori et al. [21],
which is independent from cantilever stiffness measurement. In
this method, vertical displacement was applied at sloped surface
to cause the slippage, measuring the resulting vertical and lateral
forces versus the applied vertical displacement. Then, the derivatives (i.e. the slopes) of the vertical and lateral forces in terms of
voltage, denoted as W0 and 0 respectively, are used to nd the
friction coefcient [21]:
+

(FT cos  + FC sin ) FT sin  + FC cos  = 0

FC CLat VL

By rearranging Eq. (4), the lateral calibration factor can be

obtained as:

20
1
 
=


W0 sin 2

(6)

Fig. 9 illustrates the resulting force-displacement plots and linearly tted curves of the vertical and lateral forces.

Fig. 9. Plots for friction force calibration: (a) The vertical force FT (b) the lateral force FC .

M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

20
10
0

F T [N] FC [N]

630

10

12

10

12

10

12

10

12

50
0

FC/FT

0.5
0

AE [V]

0.5
0

(a) 30 N at 1.0 m/s

Time [Sec]

(b) 40 N at 1.0 m/s

AE [V]

FC/FT

F T [N] FC [N]

20
10
0

10

10

10

10

50
0

0.5
0
0.5
0

(d) 60 N at 1.0 m/s

10

20

0
7.2
50

7.4

7.6

7.8

0
7.2
0.5

7.4

7.6

7.8

7.4

7.6

7.8

7.6

7.8

AE [V]

F /F

FT [N] FC [N]

(c) 50 N at 1.0 m/s

Time [Sec]

0
7.2
0.4
0.2
0
7.2

7.4

(f) 40 N at 5.0 m/s

FC/FT F [N] F [N]
T
C

(e) 30 N at 5.0 m/s

40
20
0

AE [V]

13.4

13.6

13.8

14

14.2

13.4

13.6

13.8

14

14.2

13.4

13.6

13.8

14

14.2

13.4

13.6

13.8

14

14.2

50
0

0.5

(g) 50 N at 5.0 m/s

Time [Sec]

0.5
0

Time [Sec]

(h) 60 N at 5.0 m/s

Fig. 10. Scratching forces corresponding to constant thrust forces.

Linear t was used to calculate the slope of vertical and lateral

forces versus the vertical displacement, which were utilized in Eq.
(6) to identify the friction coefcient. Thus the friction coefcient
between the diamond tool and the silicone artifact was found to be
0.0329.
Forcedistance measurement was performed on the slope facets
of the artifact and found the average approach and retraction lateral voltage, VL to be 2.171 V from the lateral PSPD signals (CD)

at the set thrust force, FT , of 50 N. The feed rate for approach

and retraction was at 0.2 m/s. The average lateral calibration
factor (CLat ) was found to be 1.964 105 N/V from Eq. (5). The
calibration procedure was repeated at least six times before the
experiment. With Eq. (5), it was assumed that the probe center is
also the beam center and that the tilt angle of the artifact is assumed
to be negligible. The extended force balance method is a simple
and efcient method to nd the lateral calibration factor without

M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

631

performing several iterative scans and multiple fd tests at different surfaces.

5. Results and discussions
Several scratching tests were conducted on the soda-lime glass
by using the diamond AFM probe to examine cutting properties. The
investigation was done by analyzing the thrust (vertical) forces and
cutting (lateral) forces. The fast feedback z-stage actuator maintained the set thrust force and, depending on the thrust forces,
the scratched depth changed. The feed rates were varied to examine changes in forces, depths and the apparent friction coefcients
(FC /FT ).
In this study, the main focus was on the MUCT of soda lime glass
since the stiffness of probe was limited to exert sufcient forces to
have crack formations. The pile-up heights and areas were investigated to determine the ploughing and shearing (i.e., ductile cutting)
transition.
Fig. 11. Ductile to brittle transition of soda-lime glass in micro scratching [8].

5.1. Scratching analysis

Forces can provide a plethora of information for machining operations. The interpretation of the forces, in terms of the dominant
cutting regimes in the scratching process, requires an understanding of the deformation mechanisms in the ploughing, shearing and
brittle cracking regimes. Fig. 10 depicts the measured cutting and
thrust forces and AE signals. Since the probe was set to the contact
scanning mode before it started working at the lithographic mode,
it experienced a contact mode set point force (500 nN) before
beginning the scratching process. When the process started, the
stage brought the probes tip to a new set point, which had been
dened in the lithographic mode as 0 N; and, the stage moved to
the starting point of the scratch. The scratching then began, and the
tip went back to the set point value of the lithographic mode.
In Fig. 10, the cutting force (FC ), thrust force (FT ), the ratio of
forces FC /FT and unltered AE voltage signals are plotted for the
applied constant thrust forces of 30, 40, 50 and 60 N at feed rates
of 1.0 m/s and 5.0 m/s. The cutting forces were constant for a
constant applied thrust force; and, the AE signal was measured. At
the end of the cutting, the AE signal was observed to be decreasing
very slowly, which was due to the drift of the sensor [9].
In the authors micro scratching test investigations using a conical indenter (re of 15 m) on the sloped soda-lime glass [8], FC /FT
was found to be approximately 0.5 in the ductile cutting regime
and the micro scratching by using conical tool is shown in Fig. 11.
However, in the AFM scratching test, FC /FT was found to be
smaller than that of the micro scale. The average FC /FT was determined to be approximately 0.1 for all force ranges when applied
thrust forces were 1.0 m/s. The variation of load at the lower feed
rate did not change the FC /FT , unlike the ndings of [6], who had
found that, if the depth of cut was varied the friction coefcient also
varied. However, the apparent friction coefcient varied when the
feed rate was increased; and, FC /FT was found to be approximately
0.43 for 30 and 40 N thrust force and 0.50 for 50 and 60 N thrust
forces at 5.0 m/s.
The atomic scale friction coefcients could be inuenced by
many environmental parameters like temperature and humidity.
In atomic scale the water vapor in the ambient air can act as lubricant and Hu et al. [24] has investigated this phenomenon for mica.
Binggeli and Mate [25] have seen the similar effect of lubrication by
the absorbed water. The glass sample is hydrophilic and exposed to
the ambient could contain many contaminations during the experiment. The relative humidity inside the AFM chamber was measured
to be approximately 9%; however, the authors were not able to
investigate the direct effect of humidity on the cutting forces during

the experiments which may be affecting the interaction between

the AFM probe and the glass sample.
The AE sensor was used to determine whether cracks propagated; and, in micro-scale scratching, a sudden jump in the voltage
from the AE sensor can be observed when a crack propagated as
illustrated in Fig. 11 [8]. However, in the nano-scale scratching tests,
where the scratching conditions are depicted in Table 1, the AE
signals did not show any sudden jump or burst. From these observations, it is assumed that, the scratch tests were predominantly
performed in the ploughing and ductile cutting regimes. For the
amount of thrust forces that could be applied in this experiment
(maximum 60 N), it was unable to reach the critical uncut chip
thickness (CUCT) to cause brittle cracking.
However, the unltered AE signal was observed for each scratching condition. The AE signal voltage increased along each scratch to
a certain point (until the material build-up reaches critical value)
then maintained equilibrium for the rest of the scratch. For Fig. 10a
and b, where the apparent friction coefcients were similar for each
other with the low feed rate, the AE signal trend was also similar to
each other. However, at higher feed rate, the AE signal peak value
was increased drastically for scratch with 50 N of thrust force in
comparison to the scratch with 30 N of thrust force, as shown in
Fig. 10e and g. From the experimental results, it can be concluded
that the AE signal is not affected by amount of thrust force directly,
but it can be affected as the apparent friction coefcient is varied.
Fig. 12a illustrates the topography of the machined groove and
the depth of penetrations, reecting the force applied for scratching. The cross section of the scratches shows the amount of the
piled-up material on both sides of the trench for both the feed
rates of 1 and 5 m/s. The height of the piled-up material also varied, depending on the amount of applied forces. The depth of cut
increased with increases in applied force, resulting in more material
pushed to the side of the trench. The pile-up heights for different
feed rates did not vary signicantly as shown in Fig. 12b, despite
the fact that different friction coefcients were observed.
5.2. Investigation of MUCT
To investigate the regime of deformation in the scratching process, it has been suggested by [6] that the ratio of the pile-up height
to the scratching depth needs to be examined. In nano-scale scribing, comparative size of pile-up in respect to depth of the groove is
found to be representative of the cutting regime; where in ploughing dominant scratching the ratio of pile-up height over groove

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M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

Fig. 13. Cross sectional view of the trench with pile-up heights.

Fig. 12. (a) Topographical view of the scratches and (b) scratch depths with pile-up
heights at corresponding loads.

depth is much higher than that of shearing dominant scratching.

The vertical line perpendicular to scratch line was used to measure
the scratching depth, h, and the average pile-up height, hp , as the
average of the pile-up on both sides of the groove, h1 and h2 are the
pile-up height beside the trench, i.e. hp = (h1 + h2 )/2. The scratching
depth and heights were measured using the scanned surfaces from
the ultra sharp probe (edge radius < 10 nm). In the ploughing regime
(hp /h > 1), because no chip was formed, all the deformation occurred
as the removed materials piled up on both sides of the groove.
Hence, it is expected that there will be a higher ratio in the ploughing regime than in the shearing dominant zone. In the shearing
regime (hp /h < 1), the material is removed as chips so less amount
of pile-up occurs and the average pile-up should be less than the
scratching cut. Fig. 13 depicts how the scratching depth and pile-up
heights were dened on the cross-sectional view of a scratch.
Fig. 14a was obtained by nding the pile-up ratios for different forces and feed rates. Measurements were taken at reference

lines placed perpendicular to the scratch, evenly spaced by 500 nm.

There were few points below the ratio of 1; and, this may be due to
chip formations and preexisting surface defects, such as roughness,
waviness or unconformity of the surface. The repeatability of this
experiment was veried as 6 sets of experiments were performed
and similar trends were found in all experiments. The MUCT was
found to be approximately 12.514.5 nm (shaded green areas in
Fig. 14a). However, at the lower feed rate, the MUCT region is not
as pronounced as the higher feed rate cases which could be due
to higher material ow beside the trench for higher depth of cut.
The generated chips due to cutting are adhered to the AFM probe
shown in Fig. 14b which indicates the cutting has occurred after
the ploughing.
The transition between the ploughing to shearing regime was
not rapid change rather smooth, since the sample surface was not
optically at and the reference points to measure h, h1 and h2 were
different for each feed rate due to the surface roughness.
Another approach [25] was used to investigate the ductile cutting phenomena. In this study, the areas for A1 , A2 and A3 shown
in Fig. 15 were calculated; however, calculations indicated that
A1 + A2 was usually higher than A3 . According to Yan et al. [26],
this phenomenon is due to pure ploughing. Compared to pile-up
height ratios, the area ratio is still uncertain from an experimental
point of view, due to difculties in acquiring accurate areas and to
the front pile-up effects, which are difcult to account for in the 2D
analysis.
5.3. Investigation of depth of cuts
The effects of feed rate and thrust forces have signicant inuences on the depth of cut in the nano-scale. The variation in depth of
cut, depending on different feed rates and constant applied thrust

Fig. 14. (a) Ratio of pile-up heights over scratching depth vs. scratching depth plot and (b) chips generated during machining of glass.

M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

Fig. 15. Piled-up areas (front view) 1.0 m/s.

forces, were analyzed and is shown in Fig. 16 with error bars in

the measurement. In this analysis, depth of cuts were measured at
six different locations and averaged for each cut. In previous study
of Malekian et al. [9], they found variations in scratching depths
and scratch quality of the machined surface depends on the feed
rates, when they machined chromium material with the AFM and
compared the side view. For nano-scale scratching of glass, the
scratching depth varied depending on the feed rates, showing similar results with the authors previous study [9]. As illustrated in
Fig. 9, the feed rates have a signicant effect on friction, and this
may be attributed to different depths for different feed rates. It is
also possible that the feedback servo system (the band width is
2.0 kHz approximately) is affected, especially at high feed rates.
It was observed that the scratching depth increases when the
thrust force is increased, however the relationship is not linearly
proportional. To describe the trend, second order polynomial curve
tting of the depths at different feed rates with respect to the
applied thrust force plot is performed (FT is in N and scratching
depth h is in nm) and the tted polynomials are shown in Eq. (7):
h(FT ) 23.94 + 0.93FT 0.015FT2 ;

(Feed rate 1.0 m/s)

h(FT ) 12.31 + 0.34FT + 0.007FT2 ;

(Feed rate 5.0 m/s)

(7)

The coefcient of determination, the R2 value for the equation,

is calculated to be 0.97. It can be concluded that the equation ts
reasonably well into the data. The relationship may assist in prediction of the depth of a channel depending on the thrust force and
feed rate.
5.4. Discussions
In this study, the atomic force microscope has been calibrated
extensively to obtain the vertical and lateral forces during the
scratching. From the experimental force measurements, we have
observed FC /FT increased when the feed rate increased regardless
of the depth of cuts. This phenomenon was also investigated by

Fig. 16. Scratching depth of cut with variation in the thrust force and feed rate.

633

Nikhil and Bhusan [22,23], where they have analytically modeled

the deformation friction coefcient with respect to the velocity as
def V7/3 at the normal force of 70 nN. They have experimentally
veried the nding and reasoned that higher dissipation of energy
occurred due to the tool impacting the asperities at higher feed
rates.
The thermal softening and the strain hardening effects increase
with the increase in the feed rates and these two opposite
phenomena could also inuence the friction coefcient. In submicrometer level, the strain gradient strengthening is more
dominant than thermal effect while the cutting speed is high and
depth of cut is small [27] and this can also contribute the increase
in the friction coefcient at higher feed rate.
In this study, the depth of cut was kept smaller than the tip
radius, 25 nm, therefore the shape of the tool was assumed to be
partial-sphere. In spite of applying the same amount of thrust force,
the size and shape of trench might differ depending on the orientation of the diamond tip [28]. We also experienced slightly different
pile-up effects, when we tried different the direction of scratching and the depth greater than the tip radius. Further studies are
required to consider the effects of probe shapes on the pile-up
effects and forces when the depth of cut is comparable or greater
than the tip radius. Kato et al. [29] has shown for pyramid shaped
tool that the effective slope of the cutting tool has effect on the
transition of ploughing and shearing.
As the brittle cutting increases the wear rate of the cutting tool
and reduces the tool life, which may happen if the cutting force is
high. In this study, we were not able to observe crack formation
due to the limited force exerting on to the workpiece since the
current AFM setup has the limited range of the PSPD. If shearing
occurs during the scratching process, chips would form. One of the
big challenges in nano-scale cutting is that chips tend to adhere to
the probe due to Van der Waals force; and, this may cause some
inconsistencies in force measurements. The adhered chips are very
difcult to observe and remove, due to their very small size. Further,
the piled-up material removal process will be the focus of future
work by utilizing an ultrasonic bath with nano particles to remove
the burr/side pile-up formations.

6. Conclusions
Nano-scale scribing was performed on soda-lime glass using a
single crystal diamond probe, and the forces and pile-up effects
were investigated. To accurately measure the forces, a new calibration method for the lateral direction is proposed and executed. The
extended force balance method is based on the balance of forces
at the sloped artifact to nd the calibration factor. Several scratch
tests were performed at different thrust force levels, where the fast
servo stage was actuated to maintain the set force. The experiment
was performed at different feed rates, measured the forces and also
recorded the AE signals. The AE signals did not show any sudden
burst during the scribing tests, which indicate that the scribing tests
were mainly performed in the ploughing and ductile (shearing) cutting regimes. The scribed surfaces were then scanned using the
ultra sharp probe. The apparent friction (FC /FT ) was investigated
and found that the feed rate had an effect on the friction coefcient, where the higher feed rate has increased the apparent friction
coefcient. Feed rates can also inuence the depth of cut and slippage may happen at higher feed rates. It was also observed that the
MUCT was approximately 12.514.5 nm by analyzing the pile-up
chip ratios.
In this work, machining properties of soda-lime glass at the
nano-scale were investigated to nd the optimal conditions to
achieve grooves with micro-/nano-scale features with the desired
accuracy and surface quality. Based on this work, it is possible to

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M.G. Mostofa et al. / Journal of Manufacturing Processes 15 (2013) 625634

fabricate one of a kind channels and structures on glass or ceramics. This work also enabled us to understand the ductile cutting
phenomena of glass.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the supports from the
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and
Network Centre of Excellence AUTO21.
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