Influence of random roughness on the adhesion between metal surfaces due to capillary condensation

Abstract

The capillary force was measured by atomic force microscopy between a gold coated sphere mounted on a cantilever and gold surfaces with different roughness. For smooth surfaces the capillary adhesive force surpasses in magnitude any dispersion, e.g. van der Waals/Casimir, and/or electrostatic forces. A substantial decrease in the capillary force was observed by increasing the roughness ampltitude a few nanometers between 1-10 nm. From these measurements two limits can be defined: a smooth limit where a closely macroscopic size contact surface interacts through the capillary force, and the rough limit where only a few asperities give a capillary contribution.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures, To appear in Appl. Phys. Lett. (2007)

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Influence of random roughness on the Casimir force at small separations
• Capillary adhesion between elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces
• Influence of roughness on capillary forces between hydrophilic surfaces
• Measurement of dispersive forces between evaporated metal surfaces in the range below 100 nm
• The distance upon contact: Determination from roughness profile
• Sensitivity and accuracy of Casimir force measurements in air
• The locality of surface interactions on colloidal probes
• Characterization of optical properties and surface roughness profiles: The Casimir force between real materials