Nanostructure machining and its application in surface information

Surface information is of significance in daily life, such as news displaying and information communication. The conventional methods that generate the surface information are to use chemical inks or dyes, which cause environmental pollution problems. Motived by this, this study proposes the mechanical machining method, named as vibration-assisted ultraprecision machining process, to fabricate orderly nanostructures to generate the surface information. Experimental results showed that the surface information “Beat the COVID-19″ in the form of a quick response code was successfully machined on the workpiece surface. The information also can be hidden by manipulating the facet spacing of the adjacent nanostructures. The information “LOVE”, as an example, was hidden on the workpiece surface. It only can be observed at a certain viewing angle. Besides, a replication material was employed to replicate the generated surface information. Finally, the three-dimensional topographies of these orderly nanostructures were characterized and analyzed. The proposed method for generating, hiding, and replicating surface information extends the application range of the vibration-assisted ultraprecision machining process to information science.