Atomic-Scale Friction on Stepped Surfaces of Ionic Crystals

Pascal Steiner, Enrico Gnecco, Franciszek Krok, Janusz Budzioch, Lukasz Walczak, Jerzy Konior, Marek Szymonski, and Ernst Meyer

Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 186104 – Published 6 May 2011

Abstract

We report on high-resolution friction force microscopy on a stepped NaCl(001) surface in ultrahigh vacuum. The measurements were performed on single cleavage step edges. When blunt tips are used, friction is found to increase while scanning both up and down a step edge. With atomically sharp tips, friction still increases upwards, but it decreases and even changes sign downwards. Our observations extend previous results obtained without resolving atomic features and are associated with the competition between the Schwöbel barrier and the asymmetric potential well accompanying the step edges.

Received 13 December 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.186104

Authors & Affiliations

Pascal Steiner¹, Enrico Gnecco^2,*, Franciszek Krok³, Janusz Budzioch³, Lukasz Walczak³, Jerzy Konior³, Marek Szymonski³, and Ernst Meyer¹

¹Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
²IMDEA Nanoscience, Campus Universitario de Cantoblanco, Avenida Francisco Tomás y Valiente 7, 28049, Madrid, Spain
³Research Centre for Nanometer Scale Science and Advanced Materials (NANOSAM), Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, 30-059 Krakow, Poland

^*Corresponding author.

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Issue

Vol. 106, Iss. 18 — 6 May 2011

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