Friction is a general name to a collection of phenomena that oppose motion when two surfaces are sliding against each other. It's also responsible for 20% of our total energy consumption!
One aspect that makes friction difficult to study is that it typically entails interaction between many atoms of both sliding surfaces. Our work involves sliding a single atom over a controlled surface to understand friction at the single atom limit.
Moreover, by looking at atomic systems from the side, we have a unique perspective and have made many fundamental discoveries.
Relevant Publications
A.J. Weymouth, O. Gretz, E. Riegel, and F.J. Giessibl. Measuring sliding friction at the atomic scale. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 61, SL0801 (2022)
O. Gretz, A.J. Weymouth, T. Holzmann, K. Pürckhauer, and F.J. Giessibl. Determining amplitude and tilt of a lateral force microscopy sensor. Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 12, 517 (2021)
A.J. Weymouth, E. Riegel, B. Simmet, O. Gretz and F.J. Giessibl. Lateral Force Microscopy Reveals the Energy Barrier of a Molecular Switch. ACS Nano 15, 3264 (2021)
A.J. Weymouth, E. Riegel, O. Gretz and F.J. Giessibl. Strumming a single chemical bond. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 196101 (2020)
T. Seeholzer, O. Gretz, F. J. Giessibl and A. J. Weymouth. A Fourier method for estimating potential energy and lateral forces from frequency-modulation lateral force microscopy data. New J. Physics 21, 083007 (2019)
A.J. Weymouth, E. Riegel, S. Matencio, and F.J. Giessibl. Evaluating the potential energy landscape over single molecules at room temperature with lateral force microscopy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 112, 181601 (2018)
A.J. Weymouth. Non-contact lateral force microscopy. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter. 29, 323001 (2017)
A. J. Weymouth, T. Hofmann and F. J. Giessibl. Quantifying Molecular Stiffness and Interaction with Lateral Force Microscopy. Science, 343, 1120 (2014)
A. J. Weymouth, D. Meuer, P. Mutombo, T. Wutscher, M. Ondracek, P. Jelinek, and F. J. Giessibl. Atomic structure affects the directional dependence of friction. Phys. Rev. Lett., 111, 126103 (2013)