Tomlinson model

Phenomenological model introduced in 1929 by the British physicist G.A. Tomlinson and used to interpret friction on the atomic scale.

Essentially, a nanotip is dragged by a spring over a corrugated energy landscape. The ratio between the energy corrugation and the elastic energy stored in the spring can be described by a "frictional parameter" η. If η<1 the tip slides continuously across the landscape (superlubricity regime). If η>1 the tip motion consists in abrupt jumps between the minima of the energy landscape (stick-slip regime).

In Russia this model was introduced by the Soviet physicist Yakov Frenkel. The Frenkel defect became firmly fixed in the physics of solids and liquids. In the 1930s, his research was supplemented with works on the theory of plastic deformation. His theory, now known as the Frenkel-Kontorova model, is important in the study of dislocations. [ O.M. Braun, "The Frenkel-Kontorova model: concepts, methods and applications", Springer, 2004.] (Note: Kontorova was a female scientist working with Frenkel.)

References

Inline

External links

* [http://www.nano-world.org/frictionmodule/content/0400tomlinson/?lang=en "The Tomlinson mechanism"]
* [http://monet.physik.unibas.ch/~elmer/flab/FKTModel/index.html Frenkel-Kontorova-Tomlinson Model]
* Michael Weiss, Franz-Josef Elmer: [http://www.springerlink.com/content/gbexhjvl8h9blljq/ Dry friction in the Frenkel-Kontorova-Tomlinson model: dynamical properties] , Zeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter 104 (1997).