Stability of metal vicinal surfaces revisited.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2002;
88:056104. [PMID:
11863754 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.88.056104]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2001] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
The stability of metal vicinal surfaces with respect to faceting is investigated using empirical potentials as well as electronic structure calculations. It is proven that for a wide class of empirical potentials all vicinal surfaces between (100) and (111) are unstable at 0 K when the role of third and farther nearest neighbors is negligible. However, electronic structure calculations reveal that the answer concerning the stability of vicinal surfaces is not so clear-cut. Finally, it is shown that surface vibrations at finite temperatures have little effect on the stability of vicinal surfaces.
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