Andrea Vanossi

Colloquium : Modeling friction: from nanoscale to mesoscale

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, covering open-ended directions, unconventional nanofrictional systems, and unsolved problems.

Suppression of Friction by Mechanical Vibrations

Mechanical vibrations are known to affect frictional sliding and the associated stick-slip patterns causing sometimes a drastic reduction of the friction force. This issue is relevant for applications in nanotribology and to understand earthquake triggering by small dynamic perturbations. We study the dynamics of repulsive particles confined between a horizontally driven top plate and a vertically oscillating bottom plate. Our numerical results show a suppression of the high dissipative stick-slip regime in a well-defined range of frequencies that depends on the vibrating amplitude, the normal applied load, the system inertia and the damping constant. We propose a theoretical explanation of the numerical results and derive a phase diagram indicating the region of parameter space where friction is suppressed. Our results allow to define better strategies for the mechanical control of friction.

Static and dynamic friction in sliding colloidal monolayers

In a pioneer experiment, Bohlein et al. realized the controlled sliding of two-dimensional colloidal crystals over laser-generated periodic or quasi-periodic potentials. Here we present realistic simulations and arguments that besides reproducing the main experimentally observed features give a first theoretical demonstration of the potential impact of colloid sliding in nanotribology. The free motion of solitons and antisolitons in the sliding of hard incommensurate crystals is contrasted with the soliton–antisoliton pair nucleation at the large static friction threshold Fs when the two lattices are commensurate and pinned. The frictional work directly extracted from particles’ velocities can be analyzed as a function of classic tribological parameters, including speed, spacing, and amplitude of the periodic potential (representing, respectively, the mismatch of the sliding interface and the corrugation, or “load”). These and other features suggestive of further experiments and insights promote colloid sliding to a unique friction study instrument.

Nanofriction in cold ion traps

Sliding friction between crystal lattices and the physics of cold ion traps are so far non-overlapping fields. Two sliding lattices may either stick and show static friction or slip with dynamic friction; cold ions are known to form static chains, helices or clusters, depending on the trapping conditions. Here we show, based on simulations, that much could be learnt about friction by sliding, through, for example, an electric field, the trapped ion chains over a corrugated potential. Unlike infinite chains, in which the theoretically predicted Aubry transition to free sliding may take place, trapped chains are always pinned. Yet, a properly defined static friction still vanishes Aubry-like at a symmetric-asymmetric structural transition, found for decreasing corrugation in both straight and zig-zag trapped chains. Dynamic friction is also accessible in ringdown oscillations of the ion trap. Long theorized static and dynamic one-dimensional friction phenomena could thus become accessible in future cold ion tribology.

Static friction scaling of physisorbed islands: the key is in the edge

The static friction preventing the free sliding of nanosized rare gas solid islands physisorbed on incommensurate crystalline surfaces is not completely understood. Simulations modeled on Kr/Pb(111) highlight the importance and the scaling behavior of the islands edge contribution to static friction.

Static Friction on the Fly : Velocity Depinning Transitions of Lubricants in Motion

The dragging velocity of a model solid lubricant confined between sliding periodic substrates exhibits a phase transition between two regimes, respectively, with quantized and with continuous lubricant center-of-mass velocity. The transition, occurring for increasing external driving force F ext acting on the lubricant, displays a large hysteresis, and has the features of depinning transitions in static friction, only taking place on the fly. Although different in nature, this phenomenon appears isomorphic to a static Aubry depinning transition in a Frenkel-Kontorova model, the role of particles now taken by the moving kinks of the lubricant-substrate interface. We suggest a possible realization in 2D optical lattice experiments.

Critical length limiting superlow friction.

Since the demonstration of superlow friction (superlubricity) in graphite at nanoscale, one of the main challenges in the field of nano- and micromechanics was to scale this phenomenon up. A key question to be addressed is to what extent superlubricity could persist, and what mechanisms could lead to its failure. Here, using an edge-driven Frenkel-Kontorova model, we establish a connection between the critical length above which superlubricity disappears and both intrinsic material properties and experimental parameters. A striking boost in dissipated energy with chain length emerges abruptly due to a high-friction stick-slip mechanism caused by deformation of the slider leading to a local commensuration with the substrate lattice. We derived a parameter-free analytical model for the critical length that is in excellent agreement with our numerical simulations. Our results provide a new perspective on friction and nanomanipulation and can serve as a theoretical basis for designing nanodevices with superlow friction, such as carbon nanotubes.

Gold clusters sliding on graphite: a possible quartz crystal microbalance experiment?

A large measured two-dimensional (2D) diffusion coefficient of gold nanoclusters on graphite has been known experimentally and theoretically for about a decade. When subjected to a lateral force, these clusters should slide with an amount of friction that can be measured. We examine the hypothetical possibility of measuring by quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) the phononic sliding friction of gold clusters in the size range around 250 atoms on a graphite substrate between 300 and 600 K. Assuming the validity of Einsteins relations of ordinary Brownian motion and making use of the experimentally available activated behaviour of the diffusion coefficients, we can predict the sliding friction and slip times as a function of temperature. It is found that a prototypical deposited gold cluster could yield slip times at the standard measurable size of 10 -9 s for temperatures around 450-500 K, or 200 °C. Since gold nanoclusters may also melt at around these temperatures, QCM could offer the additional chance of observing this phenomenon through a frictional change.

Frictional transition from superlubric islands to pinned monolayers

The inertial sliding of physisorbed submonolayer islands on crystal surfaces contains unexpected information on the exceptionally smooth sliding state associated with incommensurate superlubricity and on the mechanisms of its disappearance. Here, in a joint quartz crystal microbalance and molecular dynamics simulation case study of Xe on Cu(111), we show how superlubricity emerges in the large size limit of naturally incommensurate Xe islands. As coverage approaches a full monolayer, theory also predicts an abrupt adhesion-driven two-dimensional density compression on the order of several per cent, implying a hysteretic jump from superlubric free islands to a pressurized commensurate immobile monolayer. This scenario is fully supported by the quartz crystal microbalance data, which show remarkably large slip times with increasing submonolayer coverage, signalling superlubricity, followed by a dramatic drop to zero for the dense commensurate monolayer. Careful analysis of this variety of island sliding phenomena will be essential in future applications of friction at crystal/adsorbate interfaces.

Controlling single cluster dynamics at the nanoscale

Gold nanoclusters deposited on highly oriented pyrolitic graphite are selectively detached and moved as a function of their size using the atomic force microscope. Control is obtained working in amplitude modulation and by tuning the interaction strength between oscillating tip and clusters. We show that fundamental controlling parameter is the energy dissipation that can be adjusted varying the tip amplitude oscillation and monitoring the phase shift signal. We characterize the energy detachment threshold of nanoclusters with sizes of 24 and 42 nm of diameter, then we precisely induce and control the movement of clusters with diameter below 40 nm within a mixed deposition.