Phase transitions in adsorbed layers formed on crystals of square and rectangular surface lattice
Abstract This article gives a survey of phase transitions in adsorbed films on well defined surfaces of square and rectangular symmetry of the lattice. The discussion concentrates on the effects of periodic changes of the adsorbate–substrate potential on the structure and thermodynamic properties of adsorbed films. Different theoretical approaches are briefly reviewed, with an emphasis on those which explicitly take into account final corrugation of the surface potential. Several aspects of statistical mechanical description of phase transitions in surface layers, such as order–disorder, melting, commensurate–incommensurate transitions in monolayer films as well as transitions connected wit…
On the commensurate–incommensurate transition in adsorbed monolayers
Abstract A Monte Carlo simulation method is used to study the commensurate–incommensurate phase transition in monolayers and the formation of bilayer films on the (100) face of an fcc crystal. The phase diagram for the system which forms the registered (1×1) and high density incommensurate phases in the monolayer has been determined. It is shown that the registered phase undergoes the transition to a denser incommensurate solid phase when the film density increases. The mechanism of melting of the monolayer film is found to depend on the film density. In particular, the melting of dense incommensurate solid monolayer film is found to be accompanied by the transfer of adsorbed molecules into…
On the Ground State Structure of Adsorbed Monolayers: Can One Find them by Monte Carlo Simulation?
While the classical ground state structure of an atomic monolayer adsorbed at a noncorrugated perfectly flat substrate trivially is a triangular lattice, the spacing being the minimum of the interatomic potential, nontrivial structures occur on corrugated substrates. This problem is exemplified for the (100) face of a face-centered cubic crystal, varying both the density of the adsorbed monolayer and the strength of the potential due to the surface. Increasing the density beyond that of the commensurate c(2 x 2) structure, incommensurate patterns become stable with “heavy” walls (HW) oriented along the face diagonals [including the “crossing heavy walls” (CRHW) phase]. It is shown that slow…
Incommensurate phases in adsorbed monolayers: structure and energy of domain walls
Abstract The properties of incommensurate films of domain-wall structure formed on the (1 0 0) plane of face centered cubic crystals are studied by Monte Carlo simulation. The wall energies, wall structure and the wall–wall interaction are determined for different types of domain walls occurring in films which form the c(2×2) registered structure. The systems characterized by different strength and corrugation of the surface potential and of different misfit between adsorbate and adsorbent are discussed. It is demonstrated that heavy as well as light walls are rather strongly localized. Moreover, it is shown that the incommensurate structure with crossing heavy walls has higher stability th…