Simulation and experiments on friction and wear of diamond: A material for MEMS and NEMS application

Abstract

Predicting system and material properties is of critical importance for materials and components to be used in microelectromechanical systems with moving mechanical assemblies, especially nanoelectromechanical devices. In this regard, friction and wear processes on diamond surfaces are investigated by steady state molecular dynamics simulation. The atomic friction of the diamond(100) surface was studied using an extended bond order potential for hydrocarbon systems, incorporated with non-bond interactions to calculate the material properties correctly. An easy to use software is also developed to evaluate the atomic level friction coefficient for an arbitrary system, and is interfaced into a third-party graphical software.