Influence of surface electronic structure on quantum friction between Ag(111) slabs

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Vito Despoja
• Author: Vyacheslav M. Silkin
• Author: Pedro M. Echenique
• Author: Marijan Šunjić
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Science; (Department of Physics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Physics

Abstract (english)

The theoretical formulation developed in Phys. Rev. B 83, 205424 (2011) is applied to explore how surface electronic structure modifies the noncontact friction force between two silver slabs. We find that the friction shows three distinct regimes for different thicknesses. For very thin slabs N=1–7 monolayers (ML) quantum friction vs velocity shows oscillations which are due to the quantum size effect. At about 10ML friction rapidly increases because the surface state energies fall below E_F, which opens a new intraband electron-hole excitation channel. And for N>15 the friction is strongly enhanced due to the excitation of acoustic surface plasmons.

• Keywords (english): quantum friction; metalic surfaces; acoustic plasmon
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Physical review B: Condensed matter and materials physics
• Numbering: vol. 92, no. 12, 125424
• p-ISSN: 1098-0121
• e-ISSN: 1550-235X
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.125424
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:217:334756
• Publication: 2015
• Document URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.125424
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Public note: Copyright (2015) by the American Physical Society. Received 19 June 2015. Revised manuscript received 3 September 2015. Published 16 September 2015.
• Created on: 2020-01-18 18:53:45