Abstract
It has been investigated the surface deformation caused by uni-directional abrasion on a cleaved surface of natural molybdenite by various electron techniques, that is, low energy electron diffraction (LEED), reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The main results obtained are as follows;
(1) LEED patterns from the abraded surfaces on which many friction tracks are observed by SEM exhibit still MoS2 (1 × 1) structure. RHEED examination shows that the surface deformation depends on the angle between the incident beam and the direction of grinding. With the beam parallel to the direction of grinding, the streaks extending vertically to the cleaved surface appear. In the direction perpendicular to it abrasion tends to cause an orientation of the crystallites, their cleavage planes being parallel to the surface.
(2) For the cleaved surface and the abraded one, the ratio of sulfur to molybdenum Auger peak height is found almost the same. But the ratio of carbon to molybdenum Auger peak height for the abraded surface is larger than for the cleaved one.
