Colloquia

Studies of the fundamental origins of friction have undergone rapid progress in recent years with the development of new experimental and computational techniques for measuring and simulating friction at atomic length and time scales.  The increased interest has sparked a variety of discussions and debates concerning the nature of the atomic-scale and quantum mechanisms that dominate the dissipative process by which mechanical energy is transformed into heat.  Measurements of the sliding friction of physisorbed monolayers and bilayers in gaseous and liquid enviroments provide information on the relative contributions of electronic, magnetic, electrostatic and phononic dissipative mechanisms. The experiments will be discussed within the context of current theories of how friction originates at the atomic scale.