Distinguishing SiC (0001) Si-face from SiC (000-1) C-face without any damages is extremely important because the two polar faces have different physical and chemical properties which seriously influence the quality of a homoepitaxy or heteroepitaxy thin film on it. Here, a convenient and nondestructive detection method is developed to distinguish the Si-face and C-face of a (0001) oriented SiC wafer by employing a pull-off force measurement using atomic force microscopy. It is found that the pull-off force from a Si-face of 6H-SiC is about two times of that from a C-face, no matter it is a two-face chemical mechanical polishing or etched 6H-SiC wafer. The method developed here is suitable to identify polar faces of materials only if the two polar faces having different surface energy. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.