Friction and adhesion properties of clean and oxidized Al-Ni-Co decagonal quasicrystals: A UHV atomic force microscopy/scanning tunneling microscopy study

The tribological properties of adhesion and friction between 10-fold Al-Ni-Co decagonal quasicrystals and conductive W₂C and TiN coated tips were studied in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) with an atomic force microscope. Contacts between the tip and clean quasicrystals are dominated by strong adhesion forces, which result in irreversible deformations and material transfer. The irreversible adhesion was suppressed following an oxygen exposure of 10 Langmuir, which also reduced the adhesion force by a factor of two. An additional 2/3 reduction in adhesion force occurred after several 100 Langmuir exposure. A much larger decrease (by a factor 10) occurred by air-oxidation. The friction force decreased also with oxygen exposure although not as dramatically. A linear decrease by a factor two, was observed between the clean surface and the surface exposed to 200 Langmuir of oxygen. After that the friction force remained constant. Air-oxidation reduced friction by roughly another factor of two. In contrast with the clean surface, contacts with the air oxide substrate are well described by the Derjaguin-Müller-Toporov (DMT) model, while contacts with oxygen chemisorbed substrates are in the transition regime between Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) and DMT models.