Graduation Year
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.S.
Degree Granting Department
Physics
Major Professor
David Rabson, Ph.D.
Keywords
Quasicrystals, Atomistic simulation, Nano-tribology, Stochastic differential equations, Computational physics
Abstract
In a 2005 article in Science [45], Park et al. measured in vacuum the friction between a coated atomic-force-microscope tip and the clean two-fold surface of an AlNiCo quasicrystal. Because the two-fold surface is periodic in one direction and aperiodic (with a quasiperiodicity related to the Fibonacci sequence) in the perpendicular direction, frictional anisotropy is not unexpected; however, the magnitude of that anisotropy in the Park experiment, a factor of eight, is unprecedented. By eliminating chemistry as a variable, the experiment also demonstrated that the low friction of quasicrystals must be tied in some way to their quasiperiodicity. Through various models, we investigate generic geometric mechanisms that might give rise to this anisotropy.
Scholar Commons Citation
McLaughlin, Keith, "Toward understanding low surface friction on quasiperiodic surfaces" (2009). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/2098
