Atomic-scale design of friction and energy dissipation

Study of friction and energy dissipation always relied on direct observations. Actual theories provide limited prediction on the frictional and dissipative properties if only the material chemistry and geometry are known. We here develop a framework to study intrinsic friction and energy dissipation based on the only knowledge of the normal modes of the system at equilibrium. We derive an approximated expression for the first anharmonic term in the potential energy expansion which does not require the computation of the third-order force constants. Moreover, we show how to characterize the frequency content of observed physical quantities and individuate the dissipative processes active during experimental measurements. As a case study, we consider the relative sliding motion of atomic layers in molybdenum disulfide dry lubricant, and we discuss how to extract information on the energetics of sliding from atomic force microscopy signals. The presented framework switches the investigation paradigm on friction and energy dissipation from dynamic to static studies, paving avenues to explore for the design of alternative anisotropic tribological and thermal materials.