Physics – Condensed Matter – Materials Science
Scientific paper
1999-11-19
Surf. Sci. 453, 59--74 (2000) [SUSC 11599]
Physics
Condensed Matter
Materials Science
13 pages, 7 figures; info added on # ind. measurements/STM image
Scientific paper
10.1016/S0039-6028(00)00303-4
Recently it has been recognized that the so-called generalized Wigner distribution may provide at least as good a description of terrace width distributions (TWDs) on vicinal surfaces as the standard Gaussian fit and is particularly applicable for weak repulsions between steps, where the latter fails. Subsequent applications to vicinal copper surfaces at various temperatures confirmed the serviceability of the new analysis procedure but raised some theoretical questions. Here we address these issues using analytical, numerical, and statistical methods. We propose an extension of the generalized Wigner distribution to a two-parameter fit that allows the terrace widths to be scaled by an optimal effective mean width. We discuss quantitatively the approach of a Wigner distribution to a Gaussian form for strong repulsions, how errors in normalization or mean affect the deduced interaction, and how optimally to extract the interaction from the variance and mean of the TWD. We show that correlations reduce by two orders of magnitude the number of {\em independent} measurements in a typical STM image. We also discuss the effect of the discreteness ("quantization") of terrace widths, finding that for high misorientation (small mean width) the standard continuum analysis gives faulty estimates of step interactions.
Cohen Saul D.
Einstein T. L.
Giesen Margret
Richards Howard L.
No associations
LandOfFree
Extraction of Step-Repulsion Strengths from Terrace Width Distributions: Statistical and Analytic Considerations does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Extraction of Step-Repulsion Strengths from Terrace Width Distributions: Statistical and Analytic Considerations, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Extraction of Step-Repulsion Strengths from Terrace Width Distributions: Statistical and Analytic Considerations will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-445570