2004/04/02 by C. Fusco, A. Fasolino · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.1644617
published as Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 699 (2004) · 4 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2004/04/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We present a theoretical study of the dynamics of a tip scanning a graphite surface as a function of the applied load. From the analysis of the lateral forces, we extract the friction force and the corrugation of the effective tip-surface interaction potential. We find both the friction force and potential amplitude to have a power law dependence on applied load with exponent ∼ 1.6. We interpret these results as characteristic of sharp undeformable tips in contrast to the case of macroscopic and elastic microscopic contacts.