THEORY OF THE CONTRIBUTION TO SLIDING FRICTION FROM ELECTRONIC EXCITATIONS IN THE MICROBALANCE EXPERIMENT

The electronic contribution to the force of friction between a physioa dsorbed film of atoms and the metallic substrate on which it is adsorb ed in a microbalance experiment is calculated using time-dependent per turbation theory, and estimates of the experimentally observed slip ti me are made. The van der Waals interaction between an adsorbate and a substrate atom is also estimated. The connection between the adsorbate friction and the adsorbate contribution to the resistivity is also di scussed on the basis of the perturbation theory calculations.