Friction between incommensurate crystals

Jacques Friedel (1) , Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (2, 3)

1 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides
2 CdF (institution) - Collège de France
3 Recherche

We present an overview of friction processes expected between two ideal crystals of strong layers (graphite, MoS©ü...) when one crystal is rotated with respect to the other by a certain angle ¥è. We assume perfect conditions: no impurities; no preexisting dislocations in the bulk of the crystals; slow gliding velocities. Two regimes show up: a) weak coupling when ¥è>U©û/U_{L}, where U©û (U_{L}) are typical intra (inter) layer interactions. Here we expect weak friction, controled by 2 phonon processes, and analyzed by Sokoloff et al. However we point out that surface waves at the interface also play a role; b) strong coupling (¥è

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Jacques Friedel, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. Friction between incommensurate crystals. Philosophical Magazine, 2006, 87 (01), pp.39-49. ⟨10.1080/14786430600880751⟩. ⟨hal-00513735⟩