The Importance of Indirect Interactions Between Adatoms for Temperature Dependent Processes on Metal Surface

Abstract

The asymptotic form of the indirect pseudopotential interaction of noble metal adatoms on jelfium is used to interpret the phenomena arising during thermal treatment of the noble metal submonolayers on W(110). It is shown that the 2D condensation is an activated process. The growth of open clusters needs lower activation energy than the close-packed island formation. Therefore the open clusters should predominate at low temperatures and low coverages, as it is observed experimentally. On the basis of calculation of the total energy of submonolayers as a function of coverage Θ the experimental measurement of desorption energy vs. coverage is discussed.