The nontrivial role of system stiffness in nanofriction

摘要

One of the most surprising results of nanotribology from the physical point of view is the fact that the magnitude of the friction force in the commonly observed stick-slip regime is determined by not only the conditions of the contact between bodies under consideration, which is natural, but also and to an equal extent the stiffness of a measuring system. The nontrivial role of the stiffness in atomic friction is discussed in this work. It is shown that, under some conditions, it can play the role of a specific order parameter that determines the transitions between different friction regimes and, accordingly, different scenarios of dissipation of mechanical energy and momentum.