FUNDAMENTAL MECHANISMS FOR ENERGY-DISSIPATION AT SMALL SOLID SLIDING SURFACES

Previous results by the present author on microscopic mechanisms for kinetic friction between solid surfaces which are sliding relative to each other are reviewed and explained in terms of simple models involving driven harmonic oscillators. It is then argued that there is no friction for sufficiently small anharmonic solids at sufficiently low temperatures and for sufficiently weak intersurface interaction. (In the present work, dissipationless sliding was found to occur for the position-dependent part of the force acting on an atom at the interface about equal to 3 X 10(-12) N which is comparable to the value expected for rare gas films as a microbalance.)