SPA-LEED studies of growth of Ag on Ag(111) at low temperatures

The surface morphology after deposition of Ag on Ag(111) at low temperatures (130–200 K) has been studied in detail with SPA-LEED (Spot-Profile Analysis of Low-Energy Electron Diffraction). The surface roughness and the mean terrace size have been quantitatively determined under various conditions. At 130 K the surface roughness increases with coverage exactly according to the relation = ^1/2, which indicates that the inter-layer diffusion can be neglected at 130 K. Although the mean terrace length decreases with increasing coverage (following an approximate power law of ^–2/3) for all studied coverages, it is much larger than expected for a pure random or Poisson-growth mode without any diffusion of the adatoms. Therefore, Ag grows on Ag(111) at this temperature without interlayer diffusion but with intra-layer diffusion. The intralayer diffusion barrierE _d has been determined by measuring the temperature dependence of the two-dimensional island density according to the nucleation theory (supposing a critical nucleus size of one). The obtained valueE _c=0.18 eV agrees with the theoretical calculations and previous measurements. Furthermore, from comparing measured and Monte-Carlo-simulated (MC) surface roughness at different deposition temperatures we obtain E=0.05 eV as a lower limit for the additional barrier at steps.     

Microstructure of fiber-like SiC/Si3N4 composite particulate

The microstructure of fiber-like SiC/Si₃N₄ composite particulate was investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques. The SiC/Si₃N₄ composite particulate consisted of a-SiC core and a -Si₃N₄ outer shell. Two kinds of composite particulate were distinguished when the observed orientation of the SiC core was <110>. In one type of the SiC/Si₃N₄ composite particulate, a crystal relationship of (111)-SiC | (102) -Si₃N₄ and (111)-SiC (114) -Si₃N₄ was identified; in the other type of the SiC/Si₃N₄ composite particulate, a crystal relationship of (111)-SiC (001) -Si₃N₄, and (111)-SiC (101) -Si₃N₄ was observed.     

Chemisorption of halogens on silver a critical comparison of results from photqemission and thermal desorption spectroscopy

Conflicting thermal desorption (TDS) results from submonolayer coverages of atomic Cl, Br or I on Ag(100), Ag(110) or Ag(111) stimulated us to check for the possible influence of different sample preparation procedures. We present experimental evidence, that a combined approach using TDS and angle-resolved ultraviolet photoemission may help to distinguish between better and worse surface preparation. We present detailed new results for the Cl/Ag(110) system. From our observations we conclude that all three halogens listed above give one and only one TDS peak in the submonolayer regime and show very similar adsorption/desorption-characteristics. This fact removes the apparent contradictions reported in the literature and demonstrates that the halogen-Ag bond is not very sensitive to the surface crystallography.     

The Novaco-McTague rotated Xe monolayer on Pt(111): A high-order commensurate locked phase

The structural analysis of the physisorption system Xe/Pt(111) by means of high-resolution helium diffraction shows that the Xe monolayer exhibits a variety of structural phases: commensurate, incommensurate and incommensurate rotated. The observed buckling of the rotated phase demonstrates that a fraction of the Xe atoms is locked in high symmetry sites in agreement with the theoretical coincident site lattice concept of Fuselier et al., i.e. the rotated phase is a higher-order commensurate phase.     

Ferromagnetic order and critical behavior at surfaces of ultrathin epitaxial films

The critical behavior, ferromagnetic order and magnetic anisotropies of ultrathin, epitaxial, magnetic films is studied using electron capture spectroscopy (ECS), which is capable of probing the long-ranged and short-ranged electron spin polarization (ESP) at the topmost surface layer of uncoated and coated magnetic structures. For all systems [Ni(100)/Cu(100), Ni(100)/NaCl(100), fcc Fe(111)/Cu(111), Fe(100)/Ag(100), Tb/Fe(100)/Ag(100), Fe(100)/Au(100), hcp Tb(0001)/W(110), Fe(110)/W(110), V(100)/Ag(100), Pd(100)/Ag(100), Pd/W(110)] investigated so far, ferromagnetic order is detected. It is found that the surface Curie temperatureT _Cs depends on film thicknessd. ECS data obtained at the surface of various systems reveal the existence ofT- andd-dependent magnetic anisotropies. Although for V(100)/Ag(100) the measured critical exponent=0.128 agrees very well with=1/8 predicted for the two-dimensional Ising model, for other systems, such as Fe(100)/Au(100), the measured value (0.25) is in disagreement with theoretical predictions. The experimental results are discussed within the framework of presently available experimental and theoretical data.     

Structural changes during Ar-ion irradiation of laser-deposited Fe/Ag multilayers

During 350 keV Ar⁺ irradiation at 77K, laser-deposited Fe–Ag multilayers first show stress relaxation and demixing processes at the interfaces followed by grain coarsening and a supersaturation of the bcc -Fe phase with Ag due to ballistic mixing. At high fluence, the fcc -Fe(Ag) phase (a=3.65 Å) is formed, which can be explained by either chemically guided ballistic short-range relocations or by the occurrence of thermal spikes, where all atoms possess sufficient energy to allow collective structural rearrangements, but only during such a short time that a decomposition due to long-range diffusion is suppressed.     

Detailed balance and phonon assisted sticking in adsorption and desorption of H2/Si

Recent experimental results on the desorption of D₂ from Si show practically no translational heating indicating a low barrier for adsorption. This seems to be at variance with the extremely low sticking coefficient found in adsorption experiments indicating a very high barrier. In order to understand this apparent discrepancy we consider a simple model of local lattice relaxation allowing for different barriers in adsorption and desorption processes. After taking the dynamics of this relaxation into account it turns out that detailed balance in principle is valid. In practice, however, it can not be applied for very large energy releases from lattice distortions. Our model predicts very strong phonon assisted sticking.     

Electronic conduction properties of silver particles in cesium oxide

The electronic conductivity of a particular metallic particles/semiconductor system, i.e. Ag particles in cesium-oxide thin film, has been studied. The experimental results show a transition from a polycrystalline semiconductor to metallic behavior as characterized by the conductivity-temperature curve (log bs 1/T), and a five order of magnitude increase in the room temperature value of the conductivity with surface Ag content increasing from an equivalent thickness of 2Å to 20Å. It was observed by TEM that the deposited Ag was mainly in the form of dispersed particles with the particle size varying from 20 to 200Å and their separations varying from hundreds to tens of angstroms over the Ag content range. These results can hardly be explained with the model of direct electron tunneling through the Schottky barrier at the Ag-particle/cesium-oxide interface. A microstructure model with two conduction layers is presented, and an analogy to the hopping conduction mechanism is proposed to explain the electronic conduction behavior. This model predicts that the attenuation length for electronic wavefunctions localized at Ag particles falls in the range 20–50Å.     

Surface structure of β-FeSi2(101) epitaxially grown on Si(111)

The surface morphology and structure of -FeSi₂(101) films epitaxially grown on Si(111) has been studied by means of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). The films are formed by large crystallites which are single domain. Each crystallite has only one of the three possible azimuthal orientations with respect to the substrate. A large density of planar defects, however, is detected on top of each crystallite. They are assigned to intrinsic stacking faults and their existence seems hard to avoid. This high density of intrinsic defects casts serious doubts on the use of -FeSi₂ as an optoelectronic material.     

Non-isovalent alkali metal “substitution” in YBa2Cu3O7−y granular ceramics

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of non-isovalent doping in YBa₂Cu₃O_7–y in particular on its synthesis conditions and on the resistive properties both with and without a magnetic field. We concentrate on the study of possible alkali ions (Na, K, Cs) substitution at the barium sites. A low temperature sintering process is used in order to induce a reactive liquid phase. The final chemical composition is discussed as a function of the amount of the liquid phase. No alkali ion is substituted. Carbonate layers are present. However, this (lack of) substitution leads to induced vacancies and improved electrical transport properties which are as good as in highly pure materials. For conciseness the case of Na substitution only is illustrated. The use of such data in order to probe the microstructure is emphasized.     

A scanning tunneling microscopy investigation of the 1 × 2 ⇌ 1 × 1 structural transformation of the pt(110) surface

Lifting of the reconstruction of the clean Pt(110) surface under the influence of adsorbed CO proceeds at 300 K through homogeneous nucleation of small holes (with about 10 × 10 Ų size). At 350 K more correlated displacements of [110] strings take place, a characteristic shared with the reverse process, namely the restoration of the 1× 2 phase after desorption.     

The growth of crystalline vapor deposited carbon-60 thin films

Thin films (25-2500 Å) of C₆₀ molecules have been deposited on both (001) NaCl and mica substrates at varying temperatures by resistive evaporation. Both electron diffraction and high resolution microscopy have been used to assess the degree of crystallinity, the orientational ordering and the nature of the defects present in these face-centered-cubic films. For NaCl, optimum conditions yielded polycrystalline films with a tendency towards a 110 orientation, while for mica, extended single crystal films have been fabricated which exhibit a 111 direction normal to the film surface.     

Ion-beam-induced atomic transport and phase formation in the system nickel/antimony

We report on the ion-beam mixing processes of Sb/Ni marker layers and bilayers under the irradiation of ions ranging from He to Pb, at 80 K and at room temperature. The concentration profiles are obtained by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy with 900 keV -particles. At 80 K, the bilayer mixing rates cannot be reproduced by purely ballistic mixing; the essentially linear scaling of the bilayer mixing rate with the energy F _D deposited at the interface points to local spike formation. A transition to global spike formation seems to be visible for the Pb-irradiations. Additional mixing effects at 300 K are due to radiation enhanced diffusion and scale with F _D. The marker mixing rates at 80 K are reproduced by the ballistic mixing approach, but are equally well described by local spike models. High fluence Xe-irradiations of Sb/Ni bilayers lead to intermetallic phases in the interface region as verified by transmission electron microscopy.     

Interfacial segregation in Ag-Au,Au-Pd,and Cu-Ni alloys: I. (100) surfaces

Atomistic simulations of segregation to (100) free surface in Ag–Au, Au–Pd, and Cu–Ni alloy systems have been performed for a wide range of temperatures and compositions within the solid solution region of these alloy phase diagrams. In addition to the surface segregation profiles, surface free energies, enthalpies, and entropies were determined. These simulations were performed within the framework of the free energy simulation method, in which an approximate free energy functional is minimized with respect to atomic coordinates and atomic site occupation. The effects of the relaxation with respect to either the atomic positions or the atomic concentrations are discussed. For all alloy bulk compositions (0.05 C 0.95) and temperatures (400 T(K) 1,100) examined, Ag, Au, and Cu segregates to the surface in the Ag–Au, Au–Pd, and Cu–Ni alloy systems, respectively. The present results are compared with several theories for segregation. The resultant segregation profiles in Au–Pd and Ag–Au alloys are shown to be in good agreement with an empirical segregation theory, while in Cu–Ni alloys the disagreement in Ni-rich alloys is substantial. The width of the segregation profile is limited to approximately three to four atomic planes. The surface thermodynamic properties depend sensitively on the magnitude of the surface segregation, and some of them are shown to vary linearly with the magnitude of the surface segregation.     

Atomic in-plane disorder in Co/Pt superlattices

We have studied 111 and 001 oriented Co(3 Å)/Pt(18 Å) superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy via X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation. The diffraction peak shapes, for the scattering vector Q parallel to the film planes, were found to be characteristically different between these two films. For the 111 oriented sample, this broadening is characterized by a Lorentzian peak shape with a positional correlation length of the order of 50 Å. The data further indicate that the atomic correlation in the 111 sample has a long range orientational but only short range positional order.     

Numerically stable solution of coupled channel equations: The local reflection matrix

The second order linear Schrödinger equation is transformed to a first order nonlinear differential equation for a quantityp=(iq ^–1 –)/(iq ^–1 +). In a coupled channel problem all quantities occurring in this equation includingq (the WKB wave number) are matrices andp may be calledlocal reflection matrix. This quantity is closely related to the logarithmic derivative of the Schrödinger function but has no singularities in the classically allowed region. In the asymptotic region where the potential is constant the local reflection matrix approaches the physical reflection matrix. In a pure reflection problem (with an infinite potential on one side) this is the fullS-matrix, in a transmission problem (with an activation barrier of finite height) unitarity of theS-matrix can be used to determine most quantities of physical interest fromp. While standard logarithmic derivative methods can become instable for transmission problems the solution with the local reflection matrix is completely stable both for reflection and transmission problem.     

Optical second-harmonic generation of metal-island films

In metal-island films consisting of nanometer particles on a transparent substrate irradiated light fields can be locally enhanced by electron-plasma resonances. Therefore, nonlinear optical processes should be enhanced dramatically. However, second-order nonlinear processes as second-harmonic generation occuring in the surface are strongly reduced by the centrosymmetric shape of the metal particles. It is found that this surface-specific contribution to second-harmonic generation is less enhanced, as is expected from the field enhancement. The bulk contribution, at smooth metal surfaces known to be much weaker than the contribution from the real surface, is strongly enhanced by the plasma resonances without symmetry restrictions and becomes comparably important.Paper presented at the 129th WE-Heraeus-Seminar on Surface Studies by Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopies, Kassel, Germany, May 30 to June 1, 1994.     

Dual-oriented thin crystals of molybdenum grown under Ar+ ion bombardment

Ar⁺ sputtering of an Cu(111) surface while simultaneously supplying Mo atoms is known to induce an oriented growth of Mo thin crystals, or seed-layers, on evolving conical Cu protrusions. The seed-layers thus formed are shown to be dual-oriented, or bicrystalline, consisting of columnar crystallites grown homo-epitaxially. The orientation relationship between the two types of crystallites was (100)_I (111)_II with [001]_I [110]_II, and this bicrystallinity probably resulted from a non-uniform charge-up of the layers' growth front. As concluded from high-resolution electron microscopy, the Mo(100) stacking is elastically converted into the Mo(111) stacking and vice versa, under the influence of tensile stress. The homo-epitaxy that the seed-layers exhibited is believed to reflect the mutual convertibility of the Mo(100) and (111) stackings.     

On the zigzagging causility model of EPR correlations and on the interpretation of quantum mechanics

Being formalized inside the S-matrix scheme, the zigzagging causility model of EPR correlations has full Lorentz and CPT invariance. EPR correlations, proper or reversed, and Wheeler's smoky dragon metaphor are respectively pictured in spacetime or in the momentum-energy space, as V-shaped, A-shaped, or C-shaped ABC zigzags, with a summation at B over virtual states |B B|. An exact correspondence exists between the Born-Jordan-Dirac wavelike algebra of transition amplitudes and the 1774 Laplace algebra of conditional probabilities, where the intermediate summations |B) (B| were over real hidden states. While the latter used conditional (or transition) probabilities (A|C) = (C|A), the former uses transition (or conditional) amplitudes A|C = C|A*. The formal parrallelism breaks down at the level of interpretation because (A|C) = |A|C|². CPT invariance implies the Fock and Watanabe principle that, in quantum mechanics, retarded (advanced) waves are used for prediction (retrodiction), an expression of which is | U | = | U = U|, with | denoting a preparation, | a measurement, and U the evolution operator. The transformation | = |U or | = |U^–1 exchanges the preparation representation and the measurement representation of a system and is ancillary in the formalization of the quantum chance game by the wavelike algebra of conditional amplitude. In 1935 EPR overlooked that a conditional amplitude A|C = A|BB|C between the two distant measurements is at stake, and that only measurements actually performed do make sense. The reversibility A|C = C|A* implies that causality is CPT-invariant, or arrowless, at the microlevel. Arrowed causality is a macroscopic emergence, corollary to wave retardation and probability increase. Factlike irreversibility states repression, not suppression, of blind statistical retrodiction—that is, of final cause.Dedicated to Professor David Bohm, proponent of the EPRB version of nonseparability.     

Matching the Kerr solution on the surface of a rotating perfect fluid

We investigate the possible shapes of the surface of a rigidly rotating perfect fluid on which is matched the Kerr metric, using the Boyer (1965) surface condition. The solution, given in Figures 1 to 5, depends on three parameters, = qK, q = a/m, - (a/gwc), wherem denotes the mass of the source, a its angular momentum per unit mass, the angular velocity of rotation, andK is an integration constant appearing in Boyer's surface condition. When < 1, as in Figures 1 to 3, there are, for givenq and, two possible surfaces, of which the smaller one touches the ring-singularity at = a, z = 0. When > 1, as in Figures 4 and 5, there is only one possible surface of kidney-shaped tori, which also touch the ring singularity. In the case of a differentially rotating perfect fluid, we find a variety of possible strictly spheroidal surfaces, depending on the choice of an arbitrary integration function() of the angular velocity . If we choose() so that, at each point on the surface, is single-valued, then the resulting distribution exhibits an equatorial acceleration, similar to what is observed on the surface of the sun. This angular velocity distribution turns out to be identical with Thorne's (1971) angular velocity of cumulative dragging.