Surfaces and Thin Films of sp-bonded Metals

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9510132 Plummer This research program is aimed at an investigation of the physical and chemical properties of surfaces, interfaces, and thin films of simple metals, with the objective of using these model systems to elucidate fundamental concepts. A wealth of fascinating physical phenomena awaits investigation, such as pinned charge density waves at the surface of potassium, pre-martensitic surface transitions on lithium, surface reconstructions such as the missing row reconstruction on a beryllium surface, oscillatory structural transformations in thin films, and collective excitations in "designed" multilayers. The impact of these studies will be the development of new concepts that govern the behavior of a surface and an interface. %%% The physical and chemical properties of materials are varied and extremely complex, governed by the details of the interactions of billions and billions of electrons with billions of ions. On the other hand, it is this complexity that leads to applicability of materials in our daily lives, such as integrated circuits (computers), magnetic recording, catalytic activity, and light weight but strong materials, so that new material, with quite different or better physical or chemical properties can be prepared. This research program uses the simple metals (e.g., lithium, sodium, beryllium) as the vehicle for developing a fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical properties of surfaces and interfaces. It is the characteristics of the surface or interface that dictates the behavior in most of the applications above. ***