Heterogeneous dissipation and size dependencies of dissipative processes in nanoscale interactions.

Here, processes through which the energy stored in an atomic force microscope cantilever dissipates in the tip-sample interaction are first decoupled qualitatively. A formalism is then presented and shown to allow quantification of fundamental aspects of nanoscale dissipation such as deformation, viscosity, and surface energy hysteresis. Accurate quantification of energy dissipation requires precise calibration of the conversion of the oscillation amplitude from volts to nanometers. In this respect, an experimental methodology is presented that allows such calibration with errors of 3% or less. It is shown how simultaneous decoupling and quantification of dissipative processes and in situ tip radius quantification provide the required information to analyze dependencies of dissipative mechanisms on the relative size of the interacting bodies, that is, tip and surface. When there is chemical affinity, atom-atom dissipative interactions approach the energies of chemical bonds. Such atom-atom interactions are found to be independent of cantilever properties and tip geometry thus implying that they are intensive properties of the system; these interactions prevail in the form of surface energy hysteresis. Viscoelastic dissipation on the other hand is shown to depend on the size of the probe and operational parameters.