An Exploratory Study on the Analysis of Electron Triboemission Data
The authors have carried out extensive measurements of electron triboemission from the scratching of selected ceramics and of semiconductors in high vacuum. Although the origin of triboemission is not clear, the authors suggest that some triboemission features relate to worn surface evolution. A bibliographic review is presented on analysis of electron triboemission data. Time-domain and frequency-domain discussion of the burst-type triboemission outputs are presented. This paper briefly summarizes key findings on triboemission and presents measurements of electron triboemission from an alumina ball and a diamond cone scratching alumina and sapphire disks. An exploratory study is focused on frequency analysis of data. The feasibility of investigating randomness vs. deterministic origin is explored for the triboemission outputs. Because key triboemission features are yet to be explained, the proposed data analysis can be a tool for such understanding.