Electronic versus phononic friction of xenon on silver

Molecular dynamics simulations of a Xe monolayer sliding on Ag(001) and Ag(111) are carried out in order to ascertain the microscopic origin of friction. For several values of the electronic contribution to the friction of individual Xe atoms, the intraoverlayer phonon dissipation is calculated as a function of the corrugation amplitude of the substrate potential, which is a pertinent parameter to consider. Within the accuracy of the numerical results and the uncertainty with which the values of the relevant parameters are known at present, we conclude that electronic and phononic dissipation channels are of similar importance. While phonon friction gives rise to the rapid variation with coverage, the electronic friction provides a roughly coverage-independent contribution to the overall sliding friction.