AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Tribology Focus Topic Thursday Sessions
       Session TR+AS+NS+SS-ThA

Paper TR+AS+NS+SS-ThA11
Molecular Simulation of Indentation as a Probe of Scanning Probe Tip Mechanical Properties

Thursday, October 22, 2015, 5:40 pm, Room 230B

Session: Molecular Origins of Friction
Presenter: J. David Schall, Oakland University
Authors: J.D. Schall, Oakland University
K. Vummaneni, Oakland University
J.A. Harrison, United States Naval Academy
Correspondent: Click to Email
Scanning probe tips should be robust, have low adhesion, and low wear to ensure repeatability and long tip life. As new tip materials are developed these properties must be quantified and compared to existing tip materials. In this study, molecular simulation is used to measure the elastic modulus and work of adhesion of a variety of tips against a common substrate material, in this case H-terminated diamond (111). The tip materials investigated include Si, SiC, amorphous SiC, diamond, diamond like carbon and ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD). SiC was recently proposed as a new high hardness, low wear tip material. In simulation the tip geometry can be controlled to enable direct comparisons between each tip material. Both dynamic simulations at 300K and quasi-static indentions using stepwise energy minimization with and with out adhesion between tip and substrate were used. Simulations of sliding friction and wear have also been conducted to investigate the correlation between tip materials properties and friction and wear.