The single scratching test of polymer polycarbonate (PC) sample surface using an atomic force microscope (AFM) diamond tip for fabricating ripple patterns has been studied with the focus on the evaluation of the effect of the tip scratching angle on the pattern formation. The experimental results indicated that the different oriented ripples can be easily machined by controlling the scratching angles of the AFM. And, the effects of the normal load and the feed on the ripples formation and their periods were also studied. Based on the ripple pattern formation, we firstly proposed a two-step scratching method to fabricate controllable and oriented complex three-dimensional (3D) nanodot arrays. These typical ripple formations can be described via a stick-slip and crack formation process.
Keywords: Atomic force microscope (AFM); Polycarbonate (PC); Ripples; Scratching.