Abstract
In this paper, frictional ageing is investigated through simulating a silicon tip sliding over a diamond substrate with a molecular dynamics model. It is demonstrated that contact strengthening in ultra-high vacuum is mainly caused by surface dimerization. With the increase of temperature, tip-substrate contact evolves from incommensurate to commensurate due to the lattice transition from (1×1) to (2×1) lattice ordering. The combination effects of contact strengthening and thermal lubrication lead to a nonmonotonic variation of the mean friction force with temperature rise. However, the friction increase trend induced by the surface dimerization can be suppressed efficiently with the structural lubrication.
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