Disentangling viscosity and hysteretic dissipative components in dynamic nanoscale interactions

The mechanisms through which energy is dissipated in nanoscale dynamic interactions might involve tens or hundreds of atoms and might be diverse. Here, a method is presented that provides the means to disentangle, with the use of common experimental parameters, short and long range viscosity and hysteretic dissipative components. While the approach is general, the experimental study is directed to show the mechanisms of energy dissipation between a silicon atomic force microscope tip and a carbon nanotube and a quartz surface. By stabilizing the tip in situ, quantitative information is found in a reproducible manner where the magnitude of energy dissipated remains constant in experiments thus allowing comparative studies.