Surface Phase Transitions Induced by Electron Mediated Adatom-Adatom Interaction

Details Surface Phase Transitions Induced by Electron Mediated Adatom-Adatom Interaction Surface Phase Transitions Induced by Electron Mediated Adatom-Adatom Interaction

2003-03-20

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0303434v1

Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 076103 (2003)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Materials Science

4 pages, 5 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.076103

We propose that the indirect adatom-adatom interaction mediated by the conduction electrons of a metallic surface is responsible for the $\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}\Leftrightarrow 3\times 3$ structural phase transitions observed in Sn/Ge (111) and Pb/Ge (111). When the indirect interaction overwhelms the local stress field imposed by the substrate registry, the system suffers a phonon instability, resulting in a structural phase transition in the adlayer. Our theory is capable of explaining all the salient features of the $\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}\Leftrightarrow 3\times 3$ transitions observed in Sn/Ge (111) and Pb/Ge (111), and is in principle applicable to a wide class of systems whose surfaces are metallic before the transition.

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