Some aspects of formation and tribological properties of silver nanodumbbells
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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
Determining the Mechanical Strength of Ultra-Fine-Grained Metals
Published on: November 22, 2021
Boris Polyakov1, Sergei Vlassov1, Leonid M Dorogin2
1Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Kengaraga str. 8, Riga LV-1063, Latvia.
Abstract:
In this paper, metal nanodumbbells (NDs) formed by laser-induced melting of Ag nanowires (NWs) on an oxidized silicon substrate and their tribological properties are investigated. The mechanism of ND formation is proposed and illustrated with finite element method simulations. Tribological measurements consist in controllable real-time manipulation of NDs inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with simultaneous force registration. The geometry of NDs enables to distinguish between different types of motion, i.e. rolling, sliding and rotation. Real contact areas are calculated from the traces left after the displacement of NDs and compared to the contact areas predicted by the contact mechanics and frozen droplet models.
Pacs:
81.07.-b; 62.25.-g; 62.23.Hj.
