Dynamic stiffness of the contact between a carbon nanotube and a flat substrate in a peeling geometry

Tianjun Li (1) , Lorène Champougny (2) , Ludovic Bellon (2)

1 Key Laboratory of Computer Vision and System (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University of Technology
2 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon

We study the physics of adhesion and the contact mechanics at the nanoscale with a peeling experiment of a carbon nanotube on a flat substrate. Using an interferometric atomic force microscope and an extended force modulation protocol, we investigate the frequency response of the stiffness of the nano-contact from DC to 20 kHz. We show that this dynamic stiffness is only weakly frequency dependent, increasing by a factor 2 when the frequency grows by 3 orders of magnitude. Such behavior may be the signature of amorphous relaxations during the mechanical solicitation at the nano-scale.

Keywords: nano-mechanics; carbon nanotube; peeling; adhesion; contact dynamics; dynamic force spectroscopy

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics; Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Tianjun Li, Lorène Champougny, Ludovic Bellon. Dynamic stiffness of the contact between a carbon nanotube and a flat substrate in a peeling geometry. Journal of Applied Physics, 2017, 121, pp.094305 ⟨10.1063/1.4977867⟩. ⟨ensl-01399263v2⟩