Probing crystallography-induced anisotropy and periodic property of atomic friction in MoS2 via fast Fourier transform processing

Abstract

An theoretical and experimental study on friction anisotropy and 120 degree periodicity variation in atomic friction of MoS2 is presented in this paper. To clearly clarify these properties, fast Fourier transform(FFT) is utilized by Matlab software to perform the frequency variation of the actual friction signal wave acquired from the lateral friction experiment. Characteristic of the computed frequency ratios periodically varying with lattice orientation is clearly observed and well explained in terms of the periodical variation in atomic friction. The consistency between the theoretical analysis and experimental result ultimately verify the validity of the assumption. The discovery of this paper promises future application in real-time crystallographic orientation detecting.