Characterizing lateral frictional properties on nanostructured periodic surface of Ni fabricated using femtosecond laser pulses

Frictional forces are ubiquitous and play distinctive roles in a plethora of phenomena that take place across all length scales. The frictional properties at the sub-micrometer or nanometer scales, however, do not behave in the same way as they appear to behave at the macroscopic scale, which is often characterized by Amontons’ law. The ability to reliably control the frictional forces on interfaces of highly miniaturized functional devices is of substantial scientific and technological importance in a range of fields including modern micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems. The multifaceted nature of complexity involved in friction at mesoscopic length scales necessitates the systematic investigation of the structural parameters of well-defined interfaces and their correlation with the frictional properties. Here, we report on the quantitative characterization of lateral frictional properties on nanotextured periodic surface profiles of Ni fabricated using femtosecond laser pulses. Characterization of the well-defined surface structures with different structural parameters such as periodicity and roughness of such ultrafine surface patterns reveals a moderately correlative behavior between the structures and the measured lateral frictional properties. Our work presents useful implications for potential future applications involving surface profile engineering of materials with enhanced-tribological functionalities such as structural lubricity.