High Temperature Stability of Metal Surfaces

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This research involves the study of the stability of crystal surfaces to defect formation (i.e. steps, vacancies etc.) by employing high q-resolution low energy electron diffraction. The surface roughening of the (110) face of palladium, copper, cobalt, and rhodium will be investigated. This study has two objectives: 1) to determine if an instability in the surface inter-atomic potential, preceeding roughening, is a general phenomenon; 2) to determine how the electronic structure of the metals determine the roughening temperature of the (110) face relative to the melting temperature Tm. This work provides a benchmark test for models of the energetics of these surfaces near Tm and relates to new theoretical calculations of surface defect formation energies. In addition to the (110) face studies the high temperature structure of nickel(001) will also be studied.