On the Friction Behavior of SiO₂ Tip Sliding on the Au(111) Surface: How Does an Amorphous SiO₂ Tip Produce Regular Stick–Slip Friction and Friction Duality?

Friction behaviors of an amorphous SiO2 tip sliding on the Au(111) surface in atomic force microscopy (AFM) are investigated through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We observed a regime of extremely low, close-to-zero friction at low normal loads with clear stick-slip friction signals. The friction is almost independent of the applied normal load below a threshold value. However, above this loading threshold, friction can remain low or increase sharply. Such an unexpected friction duality is attributed to the high probability of defect formation at the sliding interface that can induce plowing friction in a high-friction state. The energy difference between the low-friction state and the high-friction state is surprisingly low, which is comparable to kT (similar to 25 meV) at room temperature. These findings are consistent with previous AFM friction measurements using silicon AFM tips. Further MD simulations show that one can always use an amorphous SiO2 tip to image the crystalline surface with regular stick-slip friction signals. This is largely due to the fact that there is always a small fraction of contacting Si and O atoms at the sliding interface that are sitting on the relatively stable, close-to-hollow sites of the crystalline Au(111) surface during the stick stage; thus, they are capable of sampling local energy minima. We anticipate that regular stick-slip friction can be achieved even in the intermediate loading range, so long as the low friction state is maintained when friction duality occurs.