Temperature dependence of surface-melting-induced faceting of surfaces vicinal to Pb(111)

Abstract

We present a medium-energy ion-scattering investigation of Pb surfaces with orientations in the [110] zone vicinal to Pb (111),at high temperature. Both surfaces inclined towards the (110) orientation and surfaces inclined towards the (001) orientation exhibit surface-melting-induced faceting. Faceting occurs not only close to the bulk melting point, but over a range of temperatures extending at least from 589.6 K up to the bulk melting point (600.7 K). Just below the melting point, the dry facet orientation for vicinal surfaces inclined towards (110) is 3. 1'+0.6', the dry facet orientation towards the (001) surface is 7. 3' 0.8', and for both directions the melted facet orientation is approximately 14. 5' with respect to the (111)plane. Between 593.8 and 600.7 K, the observed dry facet orientations vary less than 3'. A model calculation in terms of interfacial free energies is used to describe the facet orientations and their temperature dependence. We relate our results to recent equilibrium shape observations of Pb crystallites.

Melting and nonmelting of solid surfaces and nanosystems

“…15) [59] , and eventually observed experimentally ( Fig. 16) [60] . It is most likely the reason why e.g., beautifully perfect flat faces can be generated in gold, by simple heating close to the melting point.…”

“…The solid-liquid-vapor junctions A and B reveal a surprising lack of complete wetting, with a large partial wetting angle of about 48 degrees. [60]. Experimentally determined orientation angles as a function of T .…”

In situ high-temperature TEM observation of material escape from a surface of CoFeNi/Cu/ZrAlO composite into the amorphous carbon layer

“…It is worth noting that premelting also depends on the crystallographic orientations. The close-packed (1 1 1) faces of the fcc pure metals could be stable up to the bulk melting point, while the open (1 1 0) faces, where the packing is poorer, could undergo surface melting, and the limited melting (of the first few layers) was suggested for intermediate packing (1 0 0) faces [17,32,37,38].…”

“…This state of substance is classified as a quasi-liquid, defined as an intermediate state between a solid and a liquid, possessing characteristics of both [31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. The formation of the quasi-liquid phase on the specimen surface during heating is related to a premelting or surface melting phenomenon [17,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. Premelting may occur on crystalline surfaces below their melting points.…”

Atomic-scale study of the nonmelting, wetting, and freezing behavior of KCl(100)

“…Several investigations have been paid, both theoretically and experimentally, to the thermodynamic properties of metal surfaces at high temperatures. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The main contribution and the novelty of the present work lies in the study of the surface of an ionic solid, KCl, which poses several challenges arising from the long-range Coulomb forces. Experimental studies have been done for KCl (Ref.…”