Issue |
EPL
Volume 113, Number 4, February 2016
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 46002 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/113/46002 | |
Published online | 11 March 2016 |
Thickness-dependent nanofriction of a rare gas monolayer sliding on Pb(111) ultrathin films
1 International Laboratory for Quantum Functional Materials of Henan, and School of Physics and Engineering, Zhengzhou University - Zhengzhou 450001, China
2 School of Physics and Chemistry, Henan Polytechnic University - Jiaozuo 454000, China
3 College of Science, Zhongyuan University of Technology - Zhengzhou 450007, China
4 School of Science, Henan University of Technology - Zhengzhou 450001, China
(a) Present address: School of Physics and Engineering, Zhengzhou University - Zhengzhou, 450001, China; jiayu@zzu.edu.cn
Received: 29 November 2015
Accepted: 26 February 2016
The friction can be affected dramatically by quantum size effects (QSEs) and edge effects at nanoscale. The modulations of QSEs on nanofriction of a rare gas (RG) monolayer sliding on Pb(111) ultrathin films were investigated by using the first-principles approach within density functional theory (DFT) with van der Waals (vdW) interaction correction. Our findings revealed that there exist even-odd oscillations in the friction with the thickness of Pb(111) substrate and the friction can be tuned up to 30% by the different thicknesses of Pb(111) films. Moreover, such modulation is more obvious for the RG adatoms with larger radius. The underlying physics is that the oscillations of the electronic density of states at Fermi level induce different interactions and energy barriers between RG and Pb(111) films with different thicknesses. Overall, we here propose an approach to tune friction and a way to identify the electronic contribution to friction via the different thicknesses of substrates at nanoscale.
PACS: 68.35.Af – Atomic scale friction / 68.37.-d – Microscopy of surfaces, interfaces, and thin films
© EPLA, 2016
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.