Related papers: Sliding Over a Phase Transition
Stick-slip -- the sequence of mechanical instabilities through which a slider advances on a solid substrate -- is pervasive throughout sliding friction, from nano to geological scales. Here we suggest that trapped cold ions in an optical…
We study in detail the recent suggestions by Tshiprut et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 016101 (2005)] to tune tribological properties at the nanoscale by subjecting a substrate to periodic mechanical oscillations. We show that both in…
Sliding friction is ubiquitous in nature as are harmonic oscillators. However, when treating harmonic oscillators the effect of sliding friction is often neglected. Here, we propose a simple analytical model to include both viscous and…
We present Molecular Dynamics simulations of one- and two-dimensional bead-spring models sliding on incommensurate substrates. We investigate how sliding friction is affected by interaction anharmonicity and structural defects. In their…
The present paper is devoted to a theoretical analysis of sliding friction under the influence of oscillations perpendicular to the sliding plane. In contrast to previous works we analyze the influence of the stiffness of the tribological…
We have devised an original laboratory experiment where we investigate the frictional behaviour of a single crystal salt slider over a large number of deformation cycles. Because of its physical properties, salt, a surrogate for natural…
The influence of lateral vibrations on the stick-slip motion of a nanotip elastically pulled on a flat crystal surface is studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements on a NaCl(001) surface in ultra-high vacuum. The slippage of the…
Friction between ordered, atomically smooth surfaces at the nanoscale (nanofriction) is often governed by stick-slip processes. To test long-standing atomistic models of such processes, we implement a synthetic nanofriction interface…
Revealing phase transitions of solids through mechanical anomalies in the friction of nanotips sliding on their surfaces is an unconventional and instructive tool for continuous transitions, unexplored for first-order ones. Owing to slow…
The increase of sliding friction upon increasing load is a classic in the macroscopic world. Here we discuss the possibility that friction rise might sometimes turn into a drop when, at the mesoscale and nanoscale, a confined lubricant film…
Developing the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of friction is required for systematic design of low friction surfaces for a broad range of technological applications. Intuitively, the thermodynamic work done by a material sliding along a…
Recent experiments have revealed a giant "peak effect" in ultrapure high $T_c$ superconductors. Moreover, the new data show that the peak effect coincides exactly with the melting transition of the underlying flux lattice. In this work, we…
We report microscale friction experiments for diamond/metal and diamond/silica contacts under gigapascal contact pressures. Using a new nanoprobe technique which has sufficient dynamic range of force and stiffness, we demonstrate the…
A sudden drop in mechanical friction, between an adsorbed nitrogen monolayer and a lead substrate, occurs when the lead passes through the superconducting transition temperature. We attribute this effect to a sudden drop at the…
A tribological system consisting of two contacting blocks has been considered. One of them is arranged between two springs, the other is driven periodically. The kinetics of the system has been studied in the boundary friction mode, when an…
The physics of sliding friction is gaining impulse from nanoscale and mesoscale experiments, simulations, and theoretical modeling. This Colloquium reviews some recent developments in modeling and in atomistic simulation of friction,…
A variety of studies have modeled the physics of material deformation and damage as examples of generalized phase transitions, involving either critical phenomena or spinodal nucleation. Here we study a model for frictional sliding with…
Experiments performed by friction force microscopy at atomic-scale surface steps on graphite, MoS$_2$, and NaCl in ambient conditions are presented. Both step-down and step-up scans exhibit higher frictional forces at the edge, but…
The effects of a step defect and a random array of point defects (such as vacancies or substitutional impurities) on the force of friction acting on a xenon monolayer film as it slides on a silver (111) substrate are studied by molecular…
We study the motion of elastic networks driven over a random substrate. Our model which includes local friction forces leads to complex dynamical behavior. We find a transition to a sliding state which belongs to a new universality class.…