NCAFM2023 Programme Booklet

Monday 1420 - 1440

MOIRÉ TILE MANIPULATION INDUCED FRICTION SWITCH OF GRAPHENE ON A PLATINUM SURFACE

J.G. Vilhena * 1,2,3 , A. Zhao Liu* 3,4 , Antoine Hinaut 3 , Sebastian Scherb 3 , Feng Luo 4 , Junyan Zhang 5 , Thilo Glatzel 3 , Enrico Gnecco 6 , and Ernst Meyer* 3 1 Dep. de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain 2 IFIMAC - Condensed Matter Physics Center, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid, Spain 3 Department of Physics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland; 4 Tianjin Key Lab for Rare Earth Materials and Applications, Nankai University, 300350 Tianjin, China 5 State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 730000 Lanzhou, China 6 Smoluchowksi Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, 30-348 Krakow, Poland Email: guilherme.vilhena@uam.es

Friction control and technological advancement are intimately intertwined. Concomitantly, two-dimensional materials occupy a unique position for realizing quasi-frictionless contacts. However, the question arises of how to tune superlubric sliding. Drawing inspiration from twistronics, we propose to control superlubricity via moiré patterning. Friction force microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations unequivocally demonstrate a transition from a superlubric to dissipative sliding regime for different twist angles of graphene moirés on a Pt(111) surface triggered by the normal force. This follows from a novel mechanism at superlattice level where, beyond a critical load, moiré tiles are manipulated in a highly dissipative shear process connected to the twist angle. Importantly, the atomic detail of the dissipation associated with the moiré tile manipulation - i.e., enduring forced registry beyond a critical normal load-allows the bridging of disparate sliding regimes in a reversible manner, thus paving the road for a subtly intrinsic control of superlubricity.

Fig. Moiré tile nano-manipulation: switching off/on superlubricity.

References [1] A. Zhao Liu*, J.G. Vilhena*, Antoine Hinaut, Sebastian Scherb, Feng Luo, Junyan Zhang, Thilo Glatzel, Enrico Gnecco, and Ernst Meyer*, Nano letters, 2023 , asap. (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03818)

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