Nano Wear of Noble Metals Against Silicon

We study the wear behavior of noble metals against a semiconductor substrate within a highly focused area. The nano-wear was generated on the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM). The substrate is single crystal silicon. AFM tips were coated with noble metals, gold and silver, so that no complication of oxidation was introduced. The Au-Si and Ag-Si are two eutectic systems. The Au and Si atoms are more compatible compared with that of the Ag and Si system. During nano-wear experiments, the Au or Ag coated AFM tip slid against Si substrate. It was found that the Au tip showed adhesive wear but Ag tip showed abrasive wear. In this paper, we report results obtained in the nanoscale wear.