ATOMIC-SCALE FRICTION MEASUREMENTS ON SILVER AND CHEMISORBED OXYGEN SURFACES

A quartz microbalance technique was employed to measure characteristic slip times for ethane and ethylene monolayers adsorbed on silver and chemisorbed oxygen/silver surfaces. These systems have been suggested as model systems for studies of the relative contributions of electron ic and phonon processes towards frictional energy losses. Slip times f or the chemisorbed oxygen/silver surfaces are observed to be longer th an those for silver. Based on this observation, it is argued that elec tronic contributions to friction should be considered whenever conduct ing surfaces are involved. Potential connections between the atomic-sc ale result and macroscopic observation are discussed.