Surface physics course program
Surface thermodynamics.
(Furio Ercolessi)
The Gibbs surface.
Surface free energy and surface tension. Capillarity phenomena.
Surface entropy. Anisotropy and surface stress. Kirkwood-Buff formula.
Orientational dependence of surface free energy.
Wulff construction and equilibrium shape.
The equilibrium shape as a Gibbs free energy.
Steps and vicinal surfaces. Faceting.
Temperature dependence of equilibrium shape. Kinks.
Step-step interactions. Pokrovsky-Talapov exponent.
Roughening. Results of SOS (DG) and BCSOS models.
Roughening of vicinal surfaces. Preroughening.
Solid-liquid interfaces. Wetting and contact angles.
Surface melting, non-melting, blocked melting.
The effective interaction potential between SL and LV interfaces:
short range forces and long-range forces.
A Ginzburg-Landau theory of surface melting.
Diffusion on a melted surface.
Wetting of melt droplets on nonmelting surfaces.
Non-melting-induced faceting.
Halperin-Nelson-Young theory of 2D melting:
hexatic phase, experimental observations.
Notation for crystal surfaces.
A quick survey of experimental techniques:
real space methods (HREM, FIM, STM/AFM),
reciprocal space methods (LEED, He- and X-Ray scattering),
indirect methods (LEIS/MEIS/HEIS, PhD, SEXAFS).
Adsorption and chemisorption.
Crystal growth: growth modes (FV,SK,VW).
Capillary theory of nucleation.
Epitaxy.
Metal surfaces.
(Furio Ercolessi)
Glue models to describe atomic interactions in metals:
failures of pairwise models, connection with tight-binding, parametrizations.
Relaxation. Notations to describe surface superstructures.
Contractive reconstructions.
The triangular reconstruction of Au(100), Pt(100) and Ir(100):
structure, microscopic origin, Frank and van der Merwe model and
topological solitons, overlayer rotation, temperature behavior.
Spontaneous formation of stress domains.
The contractive reconstruction of Au(111) and Pt(111):
structure, herringbone cell, temperature behavior.
Magic vicinals.
Faceting-driven reconstructions: Au(110), Pt(110) and Ir(110)
missing row structures.
The 1x2->1x1 decostruction of Au(110) and Pt(110):
Ising universality class, disordered flat and rough phases.
Alkali-induced reconstructions [K,Cs,Li,Na/Cu,Ni,Ag,Pd].
Displacive reconstructions. W(100) and Mo(100):
Phase diagram, incommensurate phases, XY model with
cubic anisotropy, effect of H and O.
Liquid metal surfaces: structure and orientational order.
First-principles calculations of metal surfaces. Surface phonons.
(Andrea Dal Corso)
Back to the surface physics course home page
Furio Ercolessi
furio@sissa.it