SCANNING FORCE MICROSCOPY STUDIES OF IMPLANTED SILICON-CRYSTALS

Scanning force microscope has been applied to investigate wear tracks produced during friction coefficient measurements of hard steel ball a gainst (111) silicon crystals implanted with Ar ions. Such treatment c auses the stable and significant decrease in friction, despite the tot al removal of implanted species from the wear track during friction. S canning force microscope measurements of wear tracks topography suppor ted the former hypothesis assuming the formation of post-implantation dense microcracks structure and subsequent propagation of this structu re into the bulk. Such process assures small size of wear particles an d a low friction coefficient value. Additionally the microfriction for ce measurement method was applied to determine the friction coefficien t of Si3N4 cantilever and a weal track in Si crystal.