1.
Phys Rev Lett
; 88(5): 056104, 2002 Feb 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-11863754
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.