@article{freeze_ji_kingon_irving_2013, title={Impact of Joule heating, roughness, and contaminants on the relative hardness of polycrystalline gold}, volume={25}, DOI={10.1088/0953-8984/25/47/472202}, abstractNote={Asperities play a central role in the mechanical and electrical properties of contacting surfaces. Changes in trends of uniaxial compression of an asperity tip in contact with a polycrystalline substrate as a function of substrate geometry, compressive stress and applied voltage are investigated here by implementation of a coupled continuum and atomistic approach. Surprisingly, an unmodified Au polycrystalline substrate is found to be softer than one containing a void for conditions of high stress and an applied voltage of 0.2 V. This is explained in terms of the temperature distribution and weakening of Au as a function of temperature. The findings in this communication are important to the design of materials for electrical contacts because applied conditions may play a role in reversing relative hardness of the materials for conditions experienced during operation.}, number={47}, journal={Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter}, author={Freeze, C. R. and Ji, X. Y. and Kingon, A. I. and Irving, D. L.}, year={2013} }
 @article{crill_ji_irving_brenner_padgett_2010, title={Atomic and multi-scale modeling of non-equilibrium dynamics at metal-metal contacts}, volume={18}, number={3}, journal={Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering}, author={Crill, J. W. and Ji, X. and Irving, D. L. and Brenner, D. W. and Padgett, C. W.}, year={2010} }