Surface atom

It is instructive to consider just how mobile the surface atoms of a solid might be expected to be. Following the approach in Section III-2, one may first consider the evaporation-condensation equilibrium. The number of molecules hitting a 1-cm surface per second is from kinetic theory... 

The immobility of the surface atoms of a refractory solid has the consequence that the surface energy and other physical properties depend greatly on the immediate history of the material. A clean cleavage surface of a crystal will have a different (and probably lower) surface energy than a ground, abraded, heat-treated or polished surface of the same material. 

If the interaction between atoms that are not nearest neighbors is neglected, then the ratios B/A are each equal to the ratio of the number of nearest neighbors to a surface atom (across the dividing plane) to the number of nearest neighbors for an interior atom. The calculation then reduces to that given by Eq. Ill-15. 

The calculation of the surface energy of metals has been along two rather different lines. The first has been that of Skapski, outlined in Section III-IB. In its simplest form, the procedure involves simply prorating the surface energy to the energy of vaporization on the basis of the ratio of the number of nearest neighbors for a surface atom to that for an interior atom. The effect is to bypass the theoretical question of the exact calculation of the cohesional forces of a metal and, of course, to ignore the matter of surface distortion. 

Small metal clusters are also of interest because of their importance in catalysis. Despite the fact that small clusters should consist of mostly surface atoms, measurement of the photon ionization threshold for Hg clusters suggest that a transition from van der Waals to metallic properties occurs in the range of 20-70 atoms per cluster [88] and near-bulk magnetic properties are expected for Ni, Pd, and Pt clusters of only 13 atoms [89] Theoretical calculations on Sin and other semiconductors predict that the stmcture reflects the bulk lattice for 1000 atoms but the bulk electronic wave functions are not obtained [90]. Bartell and co-workers [91] study beams of molecular clusters with electron dirfraction and molecular dynamics simulations and find new phases not observed in the bulk. Bulk models appear to be valid for their clusters of several thousand atoms (see Section IX-3). 

The density of dislocations is usually stated in terms of the number of dislocation lines intersecting unit area in the crystal it ranges from 10 cm for good crystals to 10 cm" in cold-worked metals. Thus, dislocations are separated by 10 -10 A, or every crystal grain larger than about 100 A will have dislocations on its surface one surface atom in a thousand is apt to be near a dislocation. By elastic theory, the increased potential energy of the lattice near... 

Calculate the percentage of atoms that would be surface atoms in a particle containing 125 atoms 1000 atoms. Assume simple cubic geometry. 

Metals A and B form an alloy or solid solution. To take a hypothetical case, suppose that the structure is simple cubic, so that each interior atom has six nearest neighbors and each surface atom has five. A particular alloy has a bulk mole fraction XA = 0.50, the side of the unit cell is 4.0 A, and the energies of vaporization Ea and Eb are 30 and 35 kcal/mol for the respective pure metals. The A—A bond energy is aa and the B—B bond energy is bb assume that ab = j( aa + bb)- Calculate the surface energy as a function of surface composition. What should the surface composition be at 0 K In what direction should it change on heaf)pg, and why ... 

While field ion microscopy has provided an effective means to visualize surface atoms and adsorbates, field emission is the preferred technique for measurement of the energetic properties of the surface. The effect of an applied field on the rate of electron emission was described by Fowler and Nordheim [65] and is shown schematically in Fig. Vlll 5. In the absence of a field, a barrier corresponding to the thermionic work function, prevents electrons from escaping from the Fermi level. An applied field, reduces this barrier to 4> - F, where the potential V decreases linearly with distance according to V = xF. Quantum-mechanical tunneling is now possible through this finite barrier, and the solufion for an electron in a finite potential box gives... 

LEED angles must be corrected for refraction by the surface potential barrier [73]. Also, the intensity of a diffraction spot is temperature dependent because of the vibration of the surface atoms. As an approximation. 

Madey and co-workers followed the reduction of titanium with XPS during the deposition of metal overlayers on TiOi [87]. This shows the reduction of surface TiOj molecules on adsorption of reactive metals. Film growth is readily monitored by the disappearance of the XPS signal from the underlying surface [88, 89]. This approach can be applied to polymer surfaces [90] and to determine the thickness of polymer layers on metals [91]. Because it is often used for chemical analysis, the method is sometimes referred to as electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA). Since x-rays are very penetrating, a grazing incidence angle is often used to emphasize the contribution from the surface atoms. 

If a beam of monoenergetic ions of mass A/, is elastically scattered at an angle 6 by surface atoms of mass Mg, conservation of momentum and energy requires that... 

ADAM Angular-distribution Auger microscopy [85] Surface atoms silhouetted by Auger electrons from atoms in bulk Surface structure... 

INS Ion neutralization An inert gas hitting surface is spectroscopy [147] neutralized with the ejection of an Auger electron from a surface atom Spectroscopy of Emitted Ions or Molecules Kinetics of surface reactions chemisorption... 

LEIS Low-energy ion scattering [155-157] A monoenergetic beam of rare-gas ions is scattered elastically by surface atoms Surface composition... 

SIMS Secondary-ion mass spectroscopy [106, 166-168] (L-SIMS liquids) [169, 170] Ionized surface atoms are ejected by impact of -1 keV ions and analyzed by mass spectroscopy Surface composition... 

EXAFS Extended x-ray absorption fine structure [177, 178] Variation of x-ray absorption as a function of x-ray energy beyond an absorption edge the probability is affected by backscattering of the emitted electron from adjacent atoms Number and interatomic distance of surface atoms... 

Finally, in the case of solids, there is the difficulty that surface atoms and molecules differ in their properties from one location to another. The discussion in Section VII-4 made clear the variety of surface heterogeneities possible in the case of a solid. Those measurements that depend on the state of surface atoms or molecules will generally be influenced differently by such heterogeneities. Different methods of measuring surface area will thus often not only give different absolute values, but may also give different relative values for a series of solids. 

The composition and chemical state of the surface atoms or molecules are very important, especially in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, where mixed-surface compositions are common. This aspect is discussed in more detail in Chapter XVIII (but again see Refs. 55, 56). Since transition metals are widely used in catalysis, the determination of the valence state of surface atoms is important, such as by ESCA, EXAFS, or XPS (see Chapter VIII and note Refs. 59, 60). 

Since solids do not exist as truly infinite systems, there are issues related to their temiination (i.e. surfaces). However, in most cases, the existence of a surface does not strongly affect the properties of the crystal as a whole. The number of atoms in the interior of a cluster scale as the cube of the size of the specimen while the number of surface atoms scale as the square of the size of the specimen. For a sample of macroscopic size, the number of interior atoms vastly exceeds the number of atoms at the surface. On the other hand, there are interesting properties of the surface of condensed matter systems that have no analogue in atomic or molecular systems. For example, electronic states can exist that trap electrons at the interface between a solid and the vacuum [1]. 

Surfaces are found to exliibit properties that are different from those of the bulk material. In the bulk, each atom is bonded to other atoms m all tliree dimensions. In fact, it is this infinite periodicity in tliree dimensions that gives rise to the power of condensed matter physics. At a surface, however, the tliree-dimensional periodicity is broken. This causes the surface atoms to respond to this change in their local enviromnent by adjusting tiieir geometric and electronic structures. The physics and chemistry of clean surfaces is discussed in section Al.7.2. 

The three-dimensional synnnetry that is present in the bulk of a crystalline solid is abruptly lost at the surface. In order to minimize the surface energy, the themiodynamically stable surface atomic structures of many materials differ considerably from the structure of the bulk. These materials are still crystalline at the surface, in that one can define a two-dimensional surface unit cell parallel to the surface, but the atomic positions in the unit cell differ from those of the bulk structure. Such a change in the local structure at the surface is called a reconstruction. 

More recently, studies employing STM have been able to address surface self-diffiision across a terrace [16, 17. 18 and 19], It is possible to image the same area on a surface as a fiinction of time, and watch the movement of individual atoms. These studies are limited only by the speed of the instrument. Note that the performance of STM instruments is constantly improving, and has now surpassed the 1 ps time resolution mark [20]. Not only has self-diflfiision of surface atoms been studied, but the diflfiision of vacancy defects on surfaces has also been observed with STM [18]. 

Note that in core-level photoelectron spectroscopy, it is often found that the surface atoms have a different binding energy than the bulk atoms. These are called surface core-level shifts (SCLS), and should not be confiised with intrinsic surface states. Au SCLS is observed because the atom is in a chemically different enviromuent than the bulk atoms, but the core-level state that is being monitored is one that is present in all of the atoms in the material. A surface state, on the other hand, exists only at the particular surface. 

L exposure would produce 1 ML of adsorbates if the sticking coefficient were unity. Note that a quantitative calculation of the exposure per surface atom depends on the molecular weight of the gas molecules and on the actual density of surface atoms, but the approximations inlierent in the definition of tire Langmuir are often inconsequential. 

There are many other experiments in which surface atoms have been purposely moved, removed or chemically modified with a scanning probe tip. For example, atoms on a surface have been induced to move via interaction with the large electric field associated with an STM tip [78]. A scaiming force microscope has been used to create three-dimensional nanostructures by pushing adsorbed particles with the tip [79]. In addition, the electrons that are tunnelling from an STM tip to the sample can be used as sources of electrons for stimulated desorption [80]. The tuimelling electrons have also been used to promote dissociation of adsorbed O2 molecules on metal or semiconductor surfaces [81, 82]. 

The van der Waals attraction arises from tlie interaction between instantaneous charge fluctuations m the molecule and surface. The molecule interacts with the surface as a whole. In contrast the repulsive forces are more short-range, localized to just a few surface atoms. The repulsion is, therefore, not homogeneous but depends on the point of impact in the surface plane, that is, the surface is corrugated. 

Of course the real projectile-surface interaction potential is not infinitely hard (cf figure A3,9,2. As E increases, the projectile can penetrate deeper into the surface, so that at its turning point (where it momentarily stops before reversing direction to return to the gas phase), an energetic projectile interacts with fewer surface atoms, thus making the effective cube mass smaller. Thus, we expect bE/E to increase with E (and also with W since the well accelerates the projectile towards the surface). 

Direct dissociation reactions are affected by surface temperature largely tlirough the motion of the substrate atoms [72]. Motion of the surface atom towards the incoming molecule mcreases the likelihood of (activated) dissociation, while motion away decreases the dissociation probability. For low dissociation probabilities, the net effect is an enliancement of the dissociation by increasing surface temperature, as observed in the system 02/Pt 100]-hex-R0.7° [73]. 

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