Abstract
Noncontact friction between a Au(111) surface and an ultrasensitive gold-coated cantilever was measured as a function of tip-sample spacing, temperature, and bias voltage using observations of cantilever damping and Brownian motion. The importance of the inhomogeneous contact potential is discussed and comparison is made to measurements over dielectric surfaces. Using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, the force fluctuations are interpreted in terms of near-surface fluctuating electric fields interacting with static surface charge.
- Received 5 April 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.096801
©2001 American Physical Society