Concentration fluctuations in adsorbed layers

The temperature and coverage dependence of the mean square concentration fluctuations in a small open domain of an adsorbed layer is discussed for various situations. It is shown that fluctuations decrease with increasing temperature and reach a limiting value when attractive interactions predominate, but increase and reach a limiting value when repulsive interactions predominate, if a single non-ideal two -dimensional phase exists. Deviations from ideal gas behavior are strongest at half coverage. At very low coverage (low particle concentration) and very high coverage (low hole concentration) ideal behavior is approached. If the layer consists of a two phase system, for instance a two-dimensional liquid or solid in equilibrium with a two-dimensional gas, fluctuations far below the critical temperature are dominated by fluctuations in the partition between phases. As the critical temperature is approached fluctuations first decrease because the mean concentrations in the two phases approach each other, and then increase very sharply near T_c. Detailed calculations for the single phase situation are given for several approximations: a dilute gas; a mean field approximation; a lattice gas in both the Bragg-Williams and the BethePeierls-Weiss approximations. The latter which takes some account of correlations between adsorbate particle positions seems to explain reasonably the presently available experimental observations on chemisorbed layers.     

Modeling migration of adsorbed atoms in dense multicomponent adsorbed layers

Within the framework of a simple (i.e., ignoring lateral interactions) lattice model, surface migration of adsorbed atoms of a crystalline substance A is considered for the case in which the surface is densely covered by the adsorbed atoms of a noncrystallized substance B. Simulation of the migration, performed by means of the Monte-Carlo method, demonstrates a sharp decrease in the root-mean-square displacement of the adsorbed atoms of A with an increase in the degree of covering by adsorbed atoms of B in the case where these adsorbed atoms exhibit weak migration mobility. This effect is associated with strong correlations in the directions of individual jumps of an adsorbed atom of A. The results of the simulation are applied to estimate the influence of the degree of covering of a surface with an impurity on the temperature at which a transition is accomplished from an nascent to a stepwise-layered mechanism of growth in silicon in molecular-beam epitaxy. V. D. Kuznetsov Siberian Institute for Technical Physics. Tomsk University. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 6, pp. 89–94, June, 1998.     

Anomalous adhesion in adsorbed polymer layers

Anomalous adhesion behaviour observed in the polydimethylsiloxane/heptane/silica system is reported. This behaviour is characterised by the infrequent appearance of one or more elastic minima which occur in addition to the ever-present primary adhesion. The resulting elastic force is attributed to loops connecting the tip to the substrate and can be described by two models; a worm-like chain, and a freely jointed chain. Both models give similar values for the characteristic segment length of around 0.24 nm and indicate that the chains have been extended by between 90 to 95% of their chain contour length before desorption. In some cases multiple adhesions were observed between tip and substrate and have been used to suggest a method for determining the distribution of adsorbed polymer loops. Received: 12 November 1997 / Accepted: 6 March 1998     

Structural anomaly of liquid Sn layers adsorbed on Ge(1 1 1) surfaces

When Ge(1 1 1) surfaces with θ = 1.0–1.4 of Sn deposit were heated above 190°C, diffuse scattering characteristic of a highly disordered 2D-structure, i.e. liquid Sn adlayer, appeared in the RHEED pattern. A noticeable finding of the diffuse scattering is that subsidiary rods were visible on the side of the main rods and showed features well corresponding to those of the shoulder of the first halo in diffraction patterns of 3D-liquid Sn. Some discussions are presented on the subsidiary rods, referring to structural anomaly of 3D-liquid Sn.     

Photoemission studies of adsorbed oxygen and oxide layers

A comprehensive review is given about the enormous versatility of photoelectron spectroscopy to study the especially complex interaction of oxygen with metal surfaces and the nature of the reaction products. The great variety of well definable parameters of a photoemission experiment, e.g. energy, direction of incidence and polarization of the primary photon beam as well as the detection direction of the photocurrent, yields - through the distributions of energy, momentum and spin polarization of the photoelectrons - detailed insight in the kinetic, thermodynamic, electronic and structural aspects of oxygen adsorption on metal surfaces and incipient oxidation. Characteristic electron binding energies, multiplet and satellite structures of both the oxygen and substrate emission allow a distinction between possible states of adsorbed oxygen, i.e. condensed, molecularly and atomically adsorbed, and incorporated oxygen. Even a distinction between octahedral and tetrahedral oxygen coordination of oxide cations may be possible. Analysis of peak intensities (as a measure of coverages and concentrations) as a function of time and temperature provides information about the kinetics and thermodynamics of adsorbed layer and oxide formation. Angular resolved photoemission studies have led to the determination of absolute adsorption site geometries, individual ad-orbital symmetries and two-dimensional band structure formation within the oxygen overlayer. Measurement of the photoelectron spin-polarization offers a method to study surface magnetism, e.g. of ferromagnetic oxides. The determination of local work functions through the photoemission behavior of co-adsorbed rare gas atoms establishes a uniquely important tool to characterize heterogenous surfaces, e.g. oxygenated surfaces with coexisting oxygen states. Numerous different oxygen/metal systems are chosen to demonstrate the state of the art. Results from other surface spectroscopies and theoretical model calculations are, of course, considered and still open problems are named, e.g. the ionicity of the oxygen chemisorption bond. Problems inherent in sputter profiling through surface oxides as observed with photoemission are briefly addressed. This work is rounded by a list of about 600 references in alphabetic order of the reacting metals.     

Application of electron-stimulated desorption for studying adsorbed layers

After a brief discussion of the main result of the research initiated by N.I. Ionov in his laboratory using electron-stimulated desorption for studying the surface layers of tungsten, we consider in greater detail recent results on layered coatings formed on the tungsten surface upon simultaneous adsorption of sodium (or cesium) and gold atoms on this surface, as well as the effect of sputtering of samarium atoms on the (Cs + Au)/W(100) surface that has already been formed at 300 K.     

Acoustic double layers in multispecies plasma

Particle simulation in a one-dimensional bounded system is used to examine the formation of acoustic double layers in the presence of two ion species. Double-layer formation depends critically on the details of the distribution functions of the supporting ion populations, and their relative drifts with respect to the electrons. The effect of having two ion components, an H⁺ and an O⁺ beam, on double-layer evolution from ion acoustic turbulence driven by an electron drift relative to the H⁺ beam of ≈0.5u _e, where uu_e is the electron thermal speed, is examined. The ratio of ion drifts is taken to be consistent with acceleration by a quasi-static auroral potential drop (i.e. V _H/V_O=√M_O/ M_H=4.0). Acoustic double layers form in either ion species on the time scale τ≈100ω_ps^-1, where ω_ps is the ion plasma frequency for species `s' and s=H or O, and for drifts relative to the electrons lower than that required for double layer formation in simulations of single ion component plasma     

A simple model for ordering in adsorbed layers

Order-disorder phase transitions in adsorbed and confined fluids with directional interactions are studied using lattice density functional theory. A new model is developed that is capable of predicting both order-disorder and condensation phase transitions. For systems with weak interactions, the results of this model are compared with both lattice Monte Carlo simulation data and simple isotherm theories that are commonly used to fit experimental data. The results show that these simple isotherms are incapable of duplicating complex behaviour exhibited by anisotropic molecules. When sufficiently strong interactions are present, confined fluids with directional interactions may spontaneously form ordered structures. It is shown that the ordering predicted by this model can result in the assembly of long chains. Such ordering has been observed experimentally in magnetorheological fluids in a magnetic field. It is shown that the orientation of the chains predicted by this model can be controlled by adjusting the molecule-surface interaction. It may be possible to create nanoscale devices that exploit this type of molecular switching.     

Thickness measurements of adsorbed layers by auger electron spectroscopy

Thicknesses of various oxygen layers, adsorbed on a clean Ge (111) surface, were obtained by monitoring the amplitude-changes of the Ge-89 eV and the oxygen 510 eV Auger transitions during overlayer growth. For thicknesses not larger than the electron escape lengths the results were in excellent agreement with published values.     

Acoustic magnetoplasma excitations in double electron layers

The inelastic light scattering technique is used to study the spectra of intraband excitations of the quasi-two-dimensional electron system in GaAS/AlGaAs double quantum wells. A new collective mode, namely, the acoustic plasmon, is discovered and investigated. The dispersion law of the acoustic mode and its dependence on the electron density are measured. It is shown that, in a perpendicular magnetic field, a hybridization of the acoustic plasmon with the cyclotron mode takes place. The properties of the hybrid acoustic magnetoplasma collective excitations are studied.     

Perspective: Kinetic and mechanical properties of adsorbed polymer layers

The European Physical Journal E -     

Computer simulations of adsorbed liquid crystal films

The structures adopted by adsorbed thin films of Gay-Beme particles in the presence of a coexisting vapour phase are investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. The films are adsorbed at a flat substrate which favours planar anchoring, whereas the nematic-vapour interface favours normal alignment. On cooling, a system with a high molecule-substrate interaction strength exhibits substrate-induced planar orientational ordering and considerable stratification is observed in the density profiles. In contrast, a system with weak molecule-substrate coupling adopts a director orientation orthogonal to the substrate plane, owing to the increased influence of the nematic-vapour interface. There are significant differences between the structures adopted at the two interfaces, in contrast with the predictions of density functional treatments of such systems.