National Center of Competence in Research Nanoscale Science

Exploring the Nano-World:

Friction at the nanometer scale

L. Zimmerli, F. Müller, H,-R. Hidber,

T. Gyalog, M. Guggisberg, E. Meyer

http://www.nccr-nano.org
http://www.nano-world.org

Friction in Every-day Life

FN

FL

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 Already the old Egyptians....

wood on dry sand: µ
0.22-0.5

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519)

1. Friction is independent on the area of contact

2. Friciton is proportional to the loading force

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 Da Vinci-Amontons‘ Laws

Guillaume Amontons (1663-1705)

Amontons discovers the friction laws again.

The work from Da Vinci was lost.

Coulomb

Charles Augustin Coulomb

(1736-1806)

Friction is independent on the velocity

Coulomb also suggests that roughness is responsible
for the emergence of friction: Tooth from micro contacts.

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 Euler

Leonhard Euler (1707-1783)

Euler experiments with the inclined plane.

He discovers the difference between kinetic and static friction

Adhesion:
Molecular Interaction

J.T. Desaguliers
1725

Contradiction to the roughness model:

High-polished surfaces hold together well and show increased friction
Desaguliers invent the concept of the adhesion:
Adhesion should be proportional to the contact area

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 200 years later: Adhesion
model of Bowden Tabor

Bowden and Tabor discover:

The real contact area is much smaller than the
geometrical contact area

Friction FF is proportional to the material contact area AR

FF =
 AR
F.P. Bowden

is the shear stress and depends molecular 1950
characteristics, similarly as the adhesion

The number of contacts increases with the normal force

and is independent of the geometrical contact area

Real contact area AR

The material contact area is much smaller than the geometrical surface (typical 10-5)
i.e. the macroscopic contact is made by micro contacts.
Shearing of the micro contacts is responsible for the macroscopic friction.

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 Nanotribology:
Examination of individual
micro or nano-contacts

1-100nm

AFM on NaF(001)

• contact mode imaging on NaF(001)

• observation of the atomic periodicity
• steps area distorted in a range of 1 nm

1 nm contact radius

1nm

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Friction force microscopy (FFM)

Normal forces FN
and lateral forces FL
are measured

Typical forces 1-100nN

M. Mate et al.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 1942(1987)

microfabricated cantilever
l = 450 µm
w = 45 µm
t = 1.5 µm

Tip height: h=12 µm

Tip radius: 10 nm

E=1.69 ·1011N/m2
G=0.5 ·1011N/m2

Springconstant kN:
Ewt 3
kN = = 0.07 N/m
4l 3
Springconstant kT:
Gwt 3
kT = = 390 N/m
3h 2l

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 Spring model of experiments

FL

k con kT

vt

E0

1
 1 1 
k eff = 
k + k 

 T con 

kT >> kcon keff ~ kcon

• the effective stiffness dominated by the
contact stiffness

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Friction contrast on organic films

Topography
Mixed Langmuir-Blodgett films
(C21H43COO -/C9F19C2H4OCC2H4COO -)

Lateral Force

C21H 43COO - C9F19C2H 4OCC2H4COO -

C-terminated F-terminated

2.8x2.8µm2

Friction on the atomic scale

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 Tomlinson mechanism
Explanation of stick slip phenomena

Tomlinson model

The tip is subject to:

1) periodic interaction with the underlying surface
2) elastic deformation of the cantilever

FN

FL v • In 1D the corresponding potential

energies are represented by:

E0 x 1
V = cos(2
tip ) + k eff ( xtip  x) 2
2 a 2

a sinusoid a parabola

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 Atomic Stick-Slip on NaCl(001)

Friction image and Friction loop on NaCl(001) in UHV

Atomic Friction on metals

Silicon tip on Cu(111) in UHV 5·10-11 mbar)

Atomic stik-slip with

2.5Å periodicity

adhesion 3-10nN (static)

Flat(max)=4.2nN

5x5nm2
R. Bennewitz et al., Phys. Rev. B 60, R11301 (1999)

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 Friction on the Nanometer-
scale: Atomic-Stick Slip

Atomic stick-slip Friction loop

FN = 0.44 nN

Ediss = 1.4 eV
KBr(001)-crystal
(per slip)

Atomic stick-slip as a function of normal

force: Observation of „Superlubricity“

>1
<1

Stick-slip
“Superlubricity”

A. Socoliuc, R. Bennewitz, E. Gnecco and E. Meyer,

Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 134301 (2004)

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 Friction of a Nano-Asperity
as a Function of Normal
Force
Experiment Theory

Transition to minimum dissipation state

Symmetry ?

0° 15° 30° 45° 60°

We expect
quadratic Symmetry ! 60°
mirrored
Symmetry Group: D4

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 Calibrattion

Callibration of the spring constant

10 nN

k= F/s
0.8 nm

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National Center of Competence in Research Nanoscale Science

Thanks
• Martin Guggisberg • Hans Hug
• Tibor Gyalog • Ernst Meyer
• Heinz Breitenstein • Mark Lantz
• Peter Fornaro • Regina Hoffmann
• Hans - Rudolf Hidber • Alexis Baratoff
• Stefan Messmer • Roland Bennewitz
• Peter Reimann • Christoph Gerber
• Martin Hegner
• Thomas Jung
• Simon Berner
• Michael Brunner

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