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Peak effect versus skating in high-temperature nanofriction

Nature Materials volume 6, pages 230–234 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The physics of sliding nanofriction at high temperature near the substrate melting point, TM, is so far unexplored. We conducted simulations of hard tips sliding on a prototype non-melting surface, NaCl(100), revealing two distinct and opposite phenomena for ploughing and for grazing friction in this regime. We found a frictional drop close to TM for deep ploughing and wear, but on the contrary a frictional rise for grazing, wearless sliding. For both phenomena, we obtain a fresh microscopic understanding, relating the former to ‘skating’ through a local liquid cloud, and the latter to linear response properties of the free substrate surface. We argue that both phenomena occur more generally on surfaces other than NaCl and should be pursued experimentally. Most metals, in particular those possessing one or more close-packed non-melting surfaces, such as Pb, Al or Au(111), are likely to behave similarly.

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Figure 1: Two different diamond tip apexes constructed for simulating ploughing and grazing friction.
Figure 2
Figure 3: Averaged ploughing frictional force 〈Fx〉 as a function of temperature.
Figure 4: At TM, a hard tip ploughing through solid NaCl(100) is surrounded by a local liquid cloud that moves with it.
Figure 5: Frictional force of a grazing tip on NaCl(100).
Figure 6: Dynamical surface atom structure factor of NaCl as a function of temperature for surface atoms alone.

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Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by MIUR FIRB RBAU017S8 R004, FIRB RBAU01LX5H, and MIUR COFIN 2003 and 2004, as well as by INFM (Iniziativa trasversale calcolo parallelo). We acknowledge illuminating discussions with, and much help from, U. Tartaglino.

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  1. T. Zykova-Timan

    Present address: Present address: Computational Science Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich USI-Campus, Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, LUI CH-6900 Lugano, Switzerland,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) and DEMOCRITOS, Via Beirut 2-4, I-34014 Trieste, Italy

    T. Zykova-Timan, D. Ceresoli & E. Tosatti

  2. International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), I-34014 Trieste, PO Box 586, Italy

    E. Tosatti

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Correspondence to E. Tosatti.

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Zykova-Timan, T., Ceresoli, D. & Tosatti, E. Peak effect versus skating in high-temperature nanofriction. Nature Mater 6, 230–234 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1836

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