AVS 45th International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Division Monday Sessions
       Session NS+SS-MoM

Invited Paper NS+SS-MoM3
Measuring Nanocontact Adhesion and Deformation

Monday, November 2, 1998, 9:00 am, Room 321/322/323

Session: Tribology, Adhesion and Interfacial Forces
Presenter: J.B. Pethica, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Correspondent: Click to Email
Nanoscale probe techniques such as nanoindentation and AFM have given new insight into contact mechanics, and hence into adhesion and tribology problems. Almost all local mechanical, and several electrical parameters of the component surface materials can be measured. The key is a reliable determination of the test probe displacement (lateral as well as normal) as a function of applied forces. Accurate determination of storage and loss moduli in thin polymer films, along with their frequency and temperature variation, will be described as one example of these capabilities, and of the associated stringent experimental requirements. During the approach to contact, sensitive force-distance spectroscopy, close to atomic scale spatial resolution, allows mapping of the interaction potential between the surfaces. Some of the outstanding problems will also be discussed. These include the effect of adsorbates, especially on the onset of irreversible or dissipative deformation, and the determination of contact area in systems which are anything other than clean and homogeneous.