Fabrication of microstructures on the surface of a micro/hollow target ball by AFM

An AFM-based mechanical scratching technique is employed to fabricate microstructures with a depth of several nanometers on the surface of a micro (the diameter is 0.1–0.5 mm) thin wall and a hollow (the thickness of the wall is 0.8–1.2 µm) glass target ball. Based on analysis of the materials removal mechanism on the hollow target ball surface by an AFM diamond tip, effects of the normal load, fixed conditions on the machining process are studied. Using the AFM-based nanomachining system which is integrated with a high-precision stage, triangular and circular microstructures are fabricated on the target ball surface. Moreover, square taper holes are fabricated by this technique which solves the problems of fabrication of micro inflation holes in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. It indicates that the AFM-based mechanical machining approach has potential applications in the fields of machining a curved surface and real three-dimensional microstructures.