Anomalous Fast Dynamics of Adsorbate Overlayers near an Incommensurate Structural Transition

Autor(es)

Granato, Enzo ^{[1, 2]} ; Ying, S. C. ^[2] ; Elder, K. R. ^[3] ; Ala-Nissila, T. ^{[2, 4, 5]}

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Inst Nacl Pesquisas Espaciais, Lab Associado Sensores & Mat, BR-12245970 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Brown Univ, Dept Phys, Providence, RI 02912 - USA

^[3] Oakland Univ, Dept Phys, Rochester, MI 48309 - USA

^[4] Aalto Univ, Sch Sci, Dept Appl Phys, FI-00076 Espoo - Finland

^[5] Aalto Univ, Sch Sci, COMP Ctr Excellence, FI-00076 Espoo - Finland

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Physical Review Letters; v. 111, n. 12 SEP 17 2013.
• Citações Web of Science: 5

Resumo

We investigate the dynamics of a compressively strained adsorbed layer on a periodic substrate via a simple two-dimensional model that admits striped and hexagonal incommensurate phases. We show that the mass transport is superfast near the striped-hexagonal phase boundary and in the hexagonal phase. For an initial step profile separating a bare substrate region (or ``hole'') from the rest of a striped incommensurate phase, the superfast domain wall dynamics leads to a bifurcation of the initial step profile into two interfaces or profiles propagating in opposite directions with a hexagonal phase in between. This yields a theoretical understanding of the recent experiments for the Pb/Si(111) system. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 07/08492-9 - Dinâmica, defeitos topológicos e transições de fase em meios ordenados
• Beneficiário: Enzo Granato
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático