Micro/Nano Friction at St. Olaf College:
Recent results, Reaching out

Dr. Brian Borovsky
Physics Department
St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

This final physics department colloquium of the semester will have three objectives: A) To provide an update on new and interesting developments from across the span of research groups attempting to understand friction on a fundamental level. B) To describe recent results obtained by your own neighborhood friction research group. These findings detail the behavior of high-speed oscillating contacts lubricated with a single layer of organic molecules. You can read about our experiments in your September 12 copy of Applied Physics Letters, which is hiding on your coffee table just under the November issue of National Geographic. C) To share plans for the future of this research that enlarge the scope of the effort with a multi-institution collaboration, including researchers at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. The idea behind our collaboration is to form a closer connection between the study of friction from a physics perspective and the push to engineer novel devices known as micromachines.

Website:  http://www.stolaf.edu/academics/nanotribology/

Article: Brian Borovsky, Adam Booth, and Erin Manlove, Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 114101 (2007)
http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=APPLAB000091000011114101000001&idtype=cvips