Surface Science of New Tribological Materials: Quasicrystalline Alloys

摘要

Instrumentation has been purchased and an apparatus designed for the measurement of frictional forces between surfaces under ultra-high vacuum conditions. This instrument design is based on an existing apparatus that has been operating in the laboratory for several years. The apparatus is to be used for combined surface science and tribological investigations of quasicrystalline materials. Quasicrystals are alloys of complex structure exhibiting long range order but not periodicity. They have been shown to have high hardness and low friction but very little is known about the origins of these properties. The instrument designed has the ability to allow study of the surface properties of materials in vacuum and also to allow the measurements of friction between pairs of such surfaces brought into contact under a range of sliding conditions.