Indirect adatom interactions interaction energy

The interaction energy, AIT, is the contribution (positive or negative) to AE, due to the (indirect) interaction between the two adatoms. In other words, AIT is the difference between the chemisorption energy AE for the doubleadsorption system and the sum of the chemisorption energies A (A = a or b) for the two individual single-adsorption systems, i.e.,... 

Summarizing, it is clear that the indirect interaction between adatoms has a significant effect on the chemisorption properties of the system. Most noticeably, the chemisorption energy has a damped, oscillatory dependence on the adatom separation, as first quantified in (8.1) by Grimley. Thus, multi-atom adsorption occurs preferentially with the atoms at certain sites relative to one another. 

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