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Nanotribology

Bringing friction to a halt

Controlling the friction between two moving surfaces — and possibly even reducing it to zero — is one of the outstanding challenges in modern tribology. Two recent discoveries may make this dream come true.

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Figure 1: Schematic setups for the two friction force microscopy experiments with controllable friction.

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Frenken, J. Bringing friction to a halt. Nature Nanotech 1, 20–21 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2006.75

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