Study of nano-scale friction using vortices in superconductors

Toward the microscopic understanding of physics of friction at the solid interface, we use the dynamics of driven vortices of superconductor as a new model system. We measured the static friction as a function of the aging time, and compared with the kinetic friction as a function of velocity for the driven vortex lattice of La1.85Sr0.15CuO4. No definite relationship, such as the one proposed for the friction of thick papers, was observed. This supports our previous proposal of the critical phenomena view that the non-Amontons-Coulomb-like behavior of the kinetic friction is a broadened dynamic transition between the static and kinetic regimes. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.