Home▸Nanotechnology & MEMS▸Atomic Stick-Slip Friction — Prandtl-Tomlinson Simulator

Atomic Stick-Slip Friction — Prandtl-Tomlinson Simulator

Drag a spring-mounted tip laterally across a periodic atomic lattice potential and watch it stick at one well then suddenly slip to the next, dissipating energy as heat — the Prandtl-Tomlinson model behind friction force microscopy. Tune spring stiffness vs lattice corrugation to cross the superlubric-to-stick-slip transition.

Nanotechnology & MEMS3DAdvanced60 FPS

Details

CategoryNanotechnology & MEMS

RenderingThree.js · WebGL

DifficultyAdvanced

Target FPS60

ControlsManual/Auto-sweep toggle switches the support drive between direct slider control and a repeating back-and-forth sweep at the chosen drive-speed; corrugation-force and spring-stiffness sliders set the Prandtl-Tomlinson stability parameter; damping slider sets tip relaxation rate; Play/Pause and Reset control the auto sweep.

friction force microscopyPrandtl-Tomlinson modelatomic frictionstick-slipsuperlubricitylateral forcenanomechanicshysteresis

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A spring-mounted tip is dragged across a periodic atomic lattice potential. Below a critical spring stiffness the tip cannot track the support smoothly: it sticks in one potential well, then suddenly slips to the next, dissipating a burst of energy as heat every lattice spacing — the microscopic mechanism behind friction force microscopy and the transition to superlubricity. Adjust the spring stiffness against the lattice corrugation to cross that transition and watch the sawtooth lateral-force signal collapse into a smooth, nearly frictionless sine wave.

⚙ Under the hood

Drag a spring-mounted tip laterally across a periodic atomic lattice potential and watch it stick at one well then suddenly slip to the next, dissipating energy as heat — the Prandtl-Tomlinson model behind friction force microscopy. Tune spring stiffness against lattice corrugation to cross the superlubric-to-stick-slip transition and read the sawtooth lateral-force hysteresis loop.

friction force microscopyPrandtl-Tomlinson modelatomic frictionstick-slipsuperlubricitylateral forcenanomechanicshysteresis

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install