Energetics of Surface Atomic Processes

Abstract

The energies needed in various surface atomic processes such as surface diffusion, binding of small atomic clusters on the surface, interaction between two adsorbed atoms, dissociation of an atom from a small cluster or from a surface layer, binding of kink site atoms or atoms at different adsorption sites to the surface etc. can be derived from a field ion microscope image analysis and a kinetic energy measurement of field desorbed ions using the time-off-light atom-probe field ion microscope. These energies can be used to understand the transport of atoms on the surface in atomic reconstructions, crystal growth, adsorption layer superstructure formation, and why an atomic ordering at the surface is energetically favored. Mechanisms of various atomic processes can also be clarified by these studies.