In Situ AES Characterization of Rotating Electrical Contacts

The electrical contact resistance and surface chemical composition of a rotating copper slip ring in contact with two wire brushes were investigated in situ under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions as a function of the number of revolutions of the slip ring. The initial surface of the copper slip ring was examined by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) techniques and found to be almost completely covered by surface impurities largely consisting of carbon. As the slip ring was rotated in contact with the brushes, the impurity concentration declined sharply to less than ten at% after several hundred revolutions. A corresponding decrease in electrical contact resistance and a sharp increase in friction and wear were also observed. Regardless of polarity, the brush with the higher contact pressure had the lower contact resistance. The in situ experiments were terminated when the motor turning the slip ring could no longer overcome the adhesive forces between the brushes and slip ring. Subsequent scanning electron microscopy observations of the brush and slip ring surfaces gave supplementary information on the mechanisms of friction, wear and surface cleaning during rotation. For a given experiment the change in contact resistance during rotation divided by the change in impurity concentration on the surface of the slip ring is approximately the same for the positive and negative interfaces. This parallelism of contact resistance and surface impurity concentration suggests that the former is caused to a significant extent by the latter. Since the surface impurities are mostly carbon atoms, it is concluded that carbon impurities are largely responsible for the observed contact resistance.