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Atomic Friction Investigations on Ordered Superstructures

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Abstract

We review recent friction measurements on ordered superstructures performed by atomic force microscopy. In particular, we consider ultrathin KBr films on NaCl(001) and Cu(001) surfaces, single and bilayer graphene on SiC(0001), and the herringbone reconstruction of Au(111). Atomically resolved friction images of these systems show periodic features spanning across several unit cells. Although the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of these superstructures are quite different, the experimental results can be interpreted within the same phenomenological framework. A comparison between experiments and modeling shows that, in the cases of KBr films on NaCl(001) and of graphene films, the tip-surface interaction is well described by a potential with the periodicity of the substrate which is modulated or, respectively, superimposed with a potential with the symmetry of the superstructure.

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Acknowledgements

The Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research on Nanoscale Science, and the European Science Foundation (EUROCORES Programme FANAS) are gratefully acknowledged for financial support.

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Author notes

  1. Sabine Maier

    Present address: Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Cyclotron Road 1, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Pascal Steiner, Enrico Gnecco, Sabine Maier & Ernst Meyer

  2. Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 2T8, Canada

    Tobin Filleter

  3. INM, Leibniz Institute for New Materials, 66123, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Nitya Nand Gosvami & Roland Bennewitz

Authors
  1. Pascal Steiner
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  2. Enrico Gnecco
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  3. Tobin Filleter
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  4. Nitya Nand Gosvami
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  5. Sabine Maier
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  6. Ernst Meyer
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  7. Roland Bennewitz
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Correspondence to Enrico Gnecco.

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Steiner, P., Gnecco, E., Filleter, T. et al. Atomic Friction Investigations on Ordered Superstructures. Tribol Lett 39, 321–327 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9677-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9677-2

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