Surfaces and Thin Films of sp-bonded Metals

9510132 Plummer本研究项目旨在研究简单金属的表面、界面和薄膜的物理和化学性质，目的是利用这些模型系统阐明基本概念。大量令人着迷的物理现象有待研究，如钾表面的钉住电荷密度波、锂表面的预马氏体表面跃迁、铍表面的缺失行重建等表面重建、薄膜中的振荡结构转变以及“设计”多层中的集体激发。这些研究的影响将是发展控制表面和界面行为的新概念。材料的物理和化学性质是多种多样的，而且极其复杂，这是由数以十亿计的电子与数以十亿计的离子相互作用的细节决定的。另一方面，正是这种复杂性导致了材料在我们日常生活中的适用性，例如集成电路（计算机）、磁记录、催化活性、轻而强的材料，从而可以制备出物理或化学性质完全不同或更好的新材料。本研究项目使用简单金属（如锂、钠、铍）作为载体，对表面和界面的物理和化学性质有了基本的了解。正是表面或接口的特性决定了上面大多数应用程序的行为。* * *

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. ***