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Experiments and theory show how superlubricity can emerge in large flakes sliding on a surface when the lattices of the flake and the surface are incommensurate.

The phenomenon of circumferential faceting in multiwalled nanotubes of general chirality and identity is rationalized in terms of interwall registry patterns between adjacent layers of curved hexagonal lattices.

Cold ions sliding across periodic energy-potential patterns formed by lasers have been used to elucidate the physics of dry friction between crystals. Experiments with no more than six ions suffice to explore a vast domain of frictional forces.

The ability of laser interference potentials to trap and control colloidal particles opens up a new potential area of 'toy systems' displaying real physics. A beautiful example is the study of friction between colloidal crystals and a variety of artificially created surface potentials.

Quantum mechanics can simulate a classical system evolving in (and towards) thermal equilibrium. This finding adds a further ingredient to the story of what problems a computer — classical or quantum — could possibly master.

Externally applied pressure induces superconductivity in the layer compound 1T-TaS₂. Similarities to, and differences from, other superconducting systems promise exciting future experiments on this old, but suddenly rejuvenated, compound.

A route connecting density functional theory and the numerical renormalization group method represents the first approach to studying atomic contacts—including magnetic elements—at an atomic level. When applied to the case of a nickel impurity in a gold nanowire, the strategy provides a clear connection between the geometry and the transport properties.

Friction between two surfaces is usually studied at low relative sliding speeds. A molecular dynamics study now explores friction at high speeds, showing the emergence of a ballistic friction regime, qualitatively different from standard drift friction. The findings might have important implications for applications in nanoelectromechanical systems.

The friction of surfaces in relative motion and separated by a few nanometres is thought to be dominated by electronic effects. It is now found that the friction sensed by an AFM tip oscillating above a NbSe₂ surface takes the form of giant dissipation peaks, and that the peaks are related to a hysteresis cycle where the oscillating tip locally pumps 2π slips in the phase of a charge-density wave.

A commercial atomic force microscope can be used to obtain atomic- or molecular-level-resolution images and interfacial energy maps of hard and soft materials in liquids.

When a tip slides on a carbon nanotube, the friction along the transverse direction is much larger than in the parallel direction. It is shown that this behaviour is due to hindered rolling of the tube, and a frictional dissipation that is negligible for a tip sliding along the axis.

The rigidity of solid nanocontacts formed when metals touch is apparently lost liquidlike under large mechanical oscillations. As we show theoretically, there is no melting but oscillated nanocontacts undergo a remarkable reversible stick-slip rheology.

The interfacial shear modulus controls the sliding friction of supported two-dimensional materials. Now, experiments demonstrate a reciprocal relationship between friction force per unit contact area and the interfacial shear modulus.

The plastic flow of crystals takes place via the elementary flow of topological defects and is strongly influenced by the presence of grain boundaries. Here, the authors show how the atomic structure of grain boundaries affects the dynamics of interstitial defects driven across monolayer colloidal polycrystals.

Non-contact atomic force microscope (AFM) dissipation contains rich information on the electron, phonon and spin states, but has been poorly understood. Here the authors demonstrated that tip-induced charge and spin state transitions in oxygen vacancies at SrTiO₃ surface are revealed by AFM dissipation measurements.

Indentation in bilayer epitaxial graphene induces its reversible transformation into a diamond-like structure with stiffness and hardness comparable to diamond.

A theoretical framework for interpreting recent observations of light-induced superconductivity in alkali-doped fullerides is proposed and developed.

This article reviews emergent nanoscale phenomena related to nanoscale contacts, which can have a great impact on the results of nanoelectronic experiments.