Optical investigation of the nanotribology of lubricated surfaces
(project currently in standby)

The main idea of this project is to combine a Surface Force Apparatus (SFA), a device that allows the study of forces and interactions between solid surfaces at a single contact point (which is the essence of the field of nanotribology), with nonlinear optical techniques, namely second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum-frequency generation (SFG). The latter techniques should allow us to detect the behavior of a single monolayer of lubricant molecules adsorbed on the surface, while the two surfaces approach each other, make contact and slide one with respect to the other. We are also considering using fluorescence techniques, such as FRET or others.

We have recently acquired a modified version of SFA which does not allow measuring the normal forces but which is specifically designed for measuring precisely small friction forces arising during sliding. It is shown on the right.

Owing to the need for focusing on the other projects, this project is currently in standby, but will resume soon. There are thesis subjects available on this project both for dottorato di ricerca (PhD) and for laurea magistrale (MSc). Contact Lorenzo Marrucci for getting more details about them.

We have no published papers on this topic yet. Interested people may get a feeling of the kind of things we are planning to do by looking at the following paper: F. Eisert, M. Gurka, A. Legant, M. Buck, and M. Grunze, "Detection of Molecular Alignment in Confined Films", Science 287, 468 (2000).

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Last updated: 03-feb-2009