Modelling of Spin-Dependent Mechanical Friction at Atomic Level

Friction at the Atomic Scale

Everyone learns the basics of friction in high-school physics classes: the friction force experienced by a sliding object is proportional to the normal force that an object exerts on a surface. Remarkably, this extremely simple and empirical relation, known as Amontons’ Law, is still often used in creating the most technologically sophisticated machines and devices, even though friction is know...

Seeing and Manipulating Spin-Spin Interactions at the Single Atomic Level

Reinterpretation of velocity-dependent atomic friction: influence of the inherent instrumental noise in friction force microscopes.

We have applied both the master equation method and harmonic transition state theory to interpret the velocity-dependent friction behavior observed in atomic friction experiments. To understand the discrepancy between attempt frequencies measured in atomic force microscopy experiments and those estimated by theoretical models, both thermal noise and instrumental noise are introduced into the mo...

Velocity dependent friction laws in contact mode atomic force microscopy.

Friction forces in the tip-sample contact govern the dynamics of contact mode atomic force microscopy. In ambient conditions typical contact radii between tip and sample are in the order of a few nanometers. In order to account for the large interaction area the dynamics of contact mode atomic force microscope (AFM) is investigated under the assumption of a multi-asperity contact interface betw...

Environmental dependence of atomic-scale friction at graphite surface steps

Philip Egberts,1 Zhijiang Ye,2 Xin Z. Liu,1 Yalin Dong,3 Ashlie Martini,2,* and Robert W. Carpick1,† 1Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, 220 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA 2School of Engineering, University of California Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, California 95343, USA 3School of Mechanical Engineering, Pu...