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  • Open Access

Low-Temperature Wear of Silica Induced by Diamond Single Asperities

Jennifer Konrad1, Yiming Song1, Dirk Dietzel1,2,*, and André Schirmeisen1,2,†

  • *Contact author: dirk.dietzel@ap.physik.uni-giessen.de
  • †Contact author: andre.schirmeisen@ap.physik.uni-giessen.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 086202 – Published 27 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kz5g-bw3b

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy is used to analyze the temperature dependence of nanoscale wear occurring during reciprocal line scanning of a SiO2 surface using diamond atomic force microscopy tips. Unexpectedly, our experiments show a wear rate that decreases with temperature. Thereby, the results cannot readily be reconciled with the common model of atomic scale wear, which assumes an abrasive process of thermally activated and shear-assisted atom-by-atom removal. Instead, shear-assisted tribochemical processes are taken into account. This is done based on a multibond model for single-asperity tribochemical wear as well as recent analysis of contact aging driven by bond formation for silica and diamond systems. We consider how thermally activated bond formation at different temperatures is met by temperature-dependent probabilities for bond rupture accompanied by wear. This allows us to rationalize the experimental results and link the temperature dependence of wear to the way an increasing number of interfacial bonds are ruptured at lower temperatures. Ultimately, our experiments thereby expand the emerging multibond model of single-asperity nanofriction and tribochemical wear to the temperature domain.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 086202– Published 27 February, 2026
  • Received 17 May 2025
  • Revised 5 October 2025
  • Accepted 7 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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