Abrasive Wear on the Atomic Scale
- 8 May 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 88 (21), 215501
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.215501
Abstract
A scanning force microscope in ultrahigh vacuum has been used to realize and detect atomic-scale abrasion on KBr(001). The continuous time evolution of the lateral force under scratching reveals that the wear mechanism is due to the removal and the rearrangement of single ion pairs. The debris is reorganized in regular terraces with the same periodicity and orientation as the unscratched surface, as in local epitaxial growth. The applied load has a strong influence on the abrasive process, whereas the scan velocity is less relevant.This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
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