Controllable material removal behavior of 6H-SiC wafer in nanoscale polishing

[Display omitted] •Analyzed the interaction between diamond abrasives and SiC wafer in nanoscale polishing.•Controllable material removal behavior of SiC wafer was realized by SG polishing pad.•Phenomenon of plastic-brittle transition of SiC was proved by experiment and simulation.•MD simulation was verified to be an effective method to simulate the material removal. Controlling material removal uniformity in nanoscale is of importance for the nano-manufacturing process. The interaction between diamond abrasives and 6H-SiC wafer surface during ultra-precision polishing had been analyzed in this study by employing the relevant experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The material removal behavior of 6H-SiC wafer through the semi-fixed abrasive polishing pad was obviously controllable. Both the brittle removal and plastic removal were existed during the processing when the cutting depth was uniform with a size of tens of nanometers, while that was the brittle removal when the cutting depth was uneven in this case. The abrasive cutting depth with approximately 4 nm was proved as the critical value of plastic-brittle transition of SiC material. A smooth, scratch-free and nearly damage-free wafer surface could be achieved by controlling material removal uniformly and restricting the abrasive cutting depth in the level of tens of nanometers or less.