{
  "abstract": "Amorphous chalcogenide materials are of increasing interest for phase-change memory and threshold-switching device applications. However, the fast-switching behavior in the nanoscale regime is difficult to confirm and characterize in terms of changes in conductivity. Understanding these electrical characteristics requires three-dimensional tomographic imaging capable of resolving structural and compositional changes across the film. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool for obtaining such 3D tomographic imaging by alternating etching and imaging steps, and it also enables both electrical measurement and biasing during etching, ​which is essential given the volatile nature of Ovonic Threshold Switching (OTS) behavior. However, achieving accurate AFM-based etching for tomography requires a quantitative understanding of the tip-induced wear resistance of the chalcogenide film, since amorphous materials, lacking long-range structural order, make their wear resistance difficult to predict from local bonding configurations and surface-mediated contact mechanics alone. Here, we study a first-order framework for estimating the relative wear resistance of amorphous chalcogenide thin films from Raman spectroscopy and for selecting initial load​ in AFM etching and test it on depth-controlled AFM tomography.\n\nEtched depth as a function of applied load was measured for three amorphous binary films (Ge-Te, Si-Te, and Ge-Se) using AFM with a diamond-coated probe, and the probe state was monitored by force–distance pull-off measurements before and after etching. The load–depth data were analyzed within an Archard–DMT (Derjaguin-Muller-Toporov) framework to obtain a composite wear parameter (\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\:{W}_{r}$$\\end{document}) that combines the wear coefficient and the effective hardness, allowing relative comparison of the films under nanoscale AFM contact conditions. This parameter follows the order Ge-Te > Si-Te > Ge-Se in both the low- and high-load ranges. To explain this order without independent nanoindentation, we introduce an effective bond enthalpy calculated from the composition and the Raman-resolved bonding configurations, which decreases monotonically with the wear parameter. Applied to an amorphous ternary Si-Ge-Te film, this relationship was used to select an etching load that yielded layer-by-layer tomographic imaging with an etched depth close to the target. These results suggest the Raman-derived effective bond enthalpy as a practical descriptor for selecting initial load​ in AFM-based nanoscale etching of amorphous chalcogenide films.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "School of Integrated Technology, College of Computing, Yonsei University, Incheon, 21983, Republic of Korea.",
    "BK21 Graduate Program in Intelligent Semiconductor Technology, Yonsei University, Incheon, 21983, Republic of Korea.",
    "School of Integrated Technology, College of Computing, Yonsei University, Incheon, 21983, Republic of Korea. jongsoukyeo@yonsei.ac.kr.",
    "BK21 Graduate Program in Intelligent Semiconductor Technology, Yonsei University, Incheon, 21983, Republic of Korea. jongsoukyeo@yonsei.ac.kr."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Siwon Park"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Young-Min Kim"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Jong-Souk Yeo",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6452-2404"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c2y2d7jy1bc6t.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1186/s42649-026-00147-5",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13728040",
  "id": "c2y2d7jy1bc6t",
  "issns": [
    "2287-5123",
    "2287-4445"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972141",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3107|Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7225110446",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13728040?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13728040",
  "pmid": "42972141",
  "published": "2026-11-03",
  "publisher": "Springer",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c2y2d7jy1bc6t.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T15:20:47Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42972141",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972141"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-06T12:23:48Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13728040",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s42649-026-00147-5"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "openalex:3107|Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications",
      "subfield": "amo"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Nanoscale etching characteristics for controlled AFM tomography of amorphous chalcogenide thin films.",
  "title_text": "Nanoscale etching characteristics for controlled AFM tomography of amorphous chalcogenide thin films.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-07T12:21:06Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c2y2d7jy1bc6t",
  "venue": "Applied microscopy",
  "versions": []
}