2020/05/16 by Hendrik Schmidt, H. Schmidt, Schmidt, H. +11 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #FOS: Physical sciences #Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.08949
Manuscript: 14 pages, 5 figures. Supporting information: 5 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1611.02684
arxiv created 2020/05/16 · openalex publication_date 2020/05/16 · arxiv updated 2020/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report active control of the friction force at the contact between a nanoscale asperity and a La0.55Ca0.45MnO3 (LCMO) thin film using electric fields. We use friction force microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions to measure the friction force as we change the film resistive state by electric field-induced resistive switching. Friction forces are high in the insulating state and clearly change to lower values when the probed local region is switched to the conducting state. Upon switching back to an insulating state, the friction forces increase again. Thus, we demonstrate active control of friction without having to change the contact temperature or pressure. By comparing with measurements of friction at the metal-to-insulator transition and with the effect of applied voltage on adhesion, we rule out electronic excitations, electrostatic forces and changes in contact area as the reasons for the effect of resistive switching on friction. Instead, we argue that friction is limited by phonon relaxation times which are strongly coupled to the electronic degrees of freedom through distortions of the MnO6 octahedra. The concept of controlling friction forces by electric fields should be applicable to any materials where the field produces strong changes in phonon lifetimes.