Non-Local and Memory Character of Frictional Energy Dissipation on Atomic Scale

Abstract

The traditional description of atomic-scale friction, as investigated in Friction force microscopy, in terms of mechanical stick-slip instabilities appears so successful that it obscures the actual mechanisms of frictional energy dissipation. More sophisticated theoretical approach, which takes into account damping explicitly, reveals the existence of some hidden, unexplained problems, like the universal nearly-critical damping and unexpectedly high value of the dissipation rate. In this paper, we combine analysis in the framework of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics with simple atomistic modeling to show that the hidden problems of atomic scale friction find their origin in the nontrivial character of energy dissipation that is non-local and dominated by memory effects, which have not been addressed before in the context of dry, atomic-scale friction.