Atomic Force Microscopy Study of an Ideally Hard Contact: The Diamond(111)/Tungsten Carbide Interface

M. Enachescu; R. J. A. van den Oetelaar; R. W. Carpick; D. F. Ogletree; C. F. J. Flipse; M. Salmeron

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1877

Atomic Force Microscopy Study of an Ideally Hard Contact: The Diamond(111)/Tungsten Carbide Interface

M. Enachescu, R. J. A. van den Oetelaar, R. W. Carpick, D. F. Ogletree, C. F. J. Flipse, and M. Salmeron

Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1877 – Published 31 August 1998

Abstract

A comprehensive nanotribological study of a hydrogen-terminated diamond(111)/tungsten carbide interface has been performed using ultrahigh vacuum atomic force microscopy. Both contact conductance, which is proportional to contact area, and friction have been measured as a function of applied load. We demonstrate for the first time that the load dependence of the contact area in UHV for this extremely hard single asperity contact is described by the Derjaguin-Müller-Toporov continuum mechanics model. Furthermore, the frictional force is found to be directly proportional to the contact area.

Received 17 February 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1877

Authors & Affiliations

M. Enachescu^*, R. J. A. van den Oetelaar^†, R. W. Carpick^‡, D. F. Ogletree, C. F. J. Flipse^§, and M. Salmeron^∥

Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

^*Permanent address: Department of Physics, University of Bucharest, P.O. Box MG-11, Bucharest, Romania.
^†Department of Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
^‡Present address: Sandia National Laboratories, Mailstop 1413 Albuquerque, NM 87185.
^§
^∥To whom correspondence should be addressed.Electronic address: salmeron@stm.lbl.gov