Related papers: Ab-initio calculation of the real contact area on …
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study different definitions of contact at the atomic scale. The roles of temperature, adhesive interactions and atomic structure are studied for simple geometries. An elastic, crystalline substrate…
We use molecular simulations to study the nonadhesive and adhesive atomic-scale contact of rough spheres with radii ranging from nanometers to micrometers over more than ten orders of magnitude in applied normal load. At the lowest loads,…
Atomistic simulations are used to test the equations of continuum contact mechanics in nanometer scale contacts. Nominally spherical tips, made by bending crystals or cutting crystalline or amorphous solids, are pressed into a flat, elastic…
We introduce a corrective function to compensate errors in contact area computations coming from mesh discretization. The correction is based on geometrical arguments and requires only one additional quantity to be computed: the length of…
Understanding the extent of contact between objects is crucial for surface-driven phenomena in the natural world. While interactions are known to occur at subnanometer-length scales, the techniques needed to measure such small-length scales…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study contact between a rigid, nonadhesive, spherical tip with radius of order 30nm and a flat elastic substrate covered with a fluid monolayer of adsorbed chain molecules. Previous studies of bare…
We propose a novel method to measure the interaction between an ultracold gas of neutral atoms and a surface. This solution combines an optical dipole trap reflected by the surface, a magnetic trap formed by current carrying wires embedded…
The formation and rupture of atomic-sized contacts is modelled by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Such nano-contacts are realized in scanning tunnelling microscope and mechanically controlled break junction experiments. These…
We present a molecular dynamics study of the contact between a rigid solid with a randomly rough surface and an elastic block with a flat surface. The numerical calculations mainly focus on the contact area and the interfacial separation…
The conductance through a quantum point contact created by a sharp and hard metal tip on the graphite surface has features which to our knowledge have not been encountered so far in metal contacts or in nanowires. In this paper we first…
The determination of the contact area is a key step to derive mechanical properties such as hardness or an elastic modulus by instrumented indentation testing. Two families of procedures are dedicated to extracting this area: on the one…
Predictive simulation of surface chemistry is of paramount importance for progress in fields from catalysis to electrochemistry and clean energy generation. Ab-initio quantum many-body methods should be offering deep insights into these…
We introduce a new method, rooted in estimation theory, to detect individual atoms in site-resolved images of microtrap arrays, such as optical lattices or optical tweezers arrays. Using labelled test images, we demonstrate drastic…
We find that the jump-into-contact of the cantilever in the atomic force microscope (AFM) is caused by an inherent instability in the motion of the AFM cantilever. The analysis is based on a simple model of the cantilever moving in a…
The point contact of a tunnel tip approaching towards Ag(111) and Cu(111) surfaces is investigated with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A sharp jump-to-contact, random in nature, is observed in the conductance. After point…
The measurement of real contact area between rough surfaces is one of most challenge problems in contact mechanics and is of importance to understand some physical mechanisms in tribology. Based on the frustrated total internal reflection,…
Imaging ultracold atomic gases close to surfaces is an important tool for the detailed analysis of experiments carried out using atom chips. We describe the critical factors that need be considered, especially when the imaging beam is…
We study the optical excitation spectrum of an atom in the vicinity of a dielectric surface. We calculate the rates of the total scattering and the scattering into the evanescent modes. With a proper assessment of the limitations, we…
Contact angle hysteresis of a macroscopic droplet on a heterogeneous but flat substrate is studied using the interface displacement model. First, the apparent contact angle of a droplet on a heterogeneous surface under the condition of…
We assume that the sample height measured using AFM is reduced due to contact deformation. The Herz contact theory is applied for the quantitative description. General numerical solution is found. Analytical approximations for specific…