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- Conache, Gabriela, 1977-, et al.
(author)
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Nanowire friction with an applied bias
- 2009
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recently, we have shown how the friction acting on nanowires pushed across a surface by an AFM tip can be determined by measuring the radius of curvature of the bent wire aŸer manipulation. This technique allows us to study the friction properties of an extended mesoscale contact. Our main focus has been to determine whether such contacts behave like macroscopic objects, in which dišerences between the 'true' and 'apparent' contact areas play a key role and friction varies linearly with the applied normal force, or whether they are more like atomic-scale point contacts, wheremore fundamental processes dominate and friction oŸen is independent of the normal force. In this work we show how the friction between InAs nanowires and an insulating silicon nitride layer on a conductive silicon substrate varies when a DC voltage is applied to the AFM tip during manipulation. e tip charges the capacitor formed by the wire and the grounded silicon back contact, giving rise to attractive Coulomb forces and thus increasing the contact pressure between the wire and the silicon nitride. In this way we can vary the normal force on the sliding surfaces using a single wire, with a constant structure and contact geometry. Using nanowires of about 40-50 nm diameter and a few microns in length we have applied tip voltages in the range +12 to -12 V. Simplemodeling indicates that these voltages su›ce to give similar levels of band-lling and depletion to when the same wires are used in working wrap-gate or back-gate devices. A monotonic increase of the sliding friction with the voltage applied on the tip was observed. is implies that the friction increases with the normal force and that this mesoscopic system behaves more like a macroscopic contact, despite the nanometer size of the contact in the direction of motion.
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