Abstract
For the better understanding of friction mechanism, it is important to study real contact points at the frictional interface. For this purpose, we originally built an experimental setup with micro electric mechanical system (MEMS) probes and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Thanks to this setup, nanoscaled real contact points were formed and separated under in-situ TEM observation. The formation and the separation processes of real contact points were well visualized and those of silicon and gold real contact points were compared at the nanoscale.
