A Model for the Thermal Expansion of Ag(111) and other Metal Surfaces

We develop a model to study the thermal expansion of surfaces, wherein phonon frequencies are obtained from ab initio total energy calculations. Anharmonic effects are treated exactly in the direction normal to the surface, and within a quasiharmonic approximation in the plane of the surface. We apply this model to the Ag(111) and Al(111) surfaces, and find that our calculations reproduce the experimental observation of a large and anomalous increase in the surface thermal expansion of Ag(111) at high temperatures [P. Statiris, H.C. Lu and T. Gustafsson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 3574 (1994)]. Surprisingly, we find that this increase can be attributed to a rapid softening of the in-plane phonon frequencies, rather than due to the anharmonicity of the out-of-plane surface phonon modes. This provides evidence for a new mechanism for the enhancement of surface anharmonicity. A comparison with Al(111) shows that the two surfaces behave quite differently, with no evidence for such anomalous behavior on Al(111).Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Z. Chem. Phy

Interplay between Bonding and Magnetism in the Adsorption of NO on Rh Clusters

We have studied the adsorption of NO on small Rh clusters, containing one to five atoms, using density functional theory in both spin-polarized and non-spin-polarized forms. We find that NO bonds more strongly to Rh clusters than it does to Rh(100) or Rh(111); however, it also quenches the magnetism of the clusters. This (local) effect results in reducing the magnitude of the adsorption energy, and also washes out the clear size-dependent trend observed in the non-magnetic case. Our results illustrate the competition present between the tendencies to bond and to magnetize, in small clusters.Comment: Submitted to J. of Chem. Phy

Elastic and Chemical Contributions to the Stability of Magnetic Surface Alloys on Ru(0001)

We have used density functional theory to study the structural stability of surface alloys. Our systems consist of a single pseudomorphic layer of $M_xN_{1-x}$ on the Ru(0001) surface, where $M$ = Fe or Co, and $N$ = Pt, Au, Ag, Cd, or Pb. Several of the combinations studied by us display a preference for atomically mixed configurations over phase-segregated forms. We have also performed further {\it ab initio} calculations to obtain the parameters describing the elastic interactions between atoms in the alloy layer, including the effective atomic sizes at the surface. We find that while elastic interactions favor alloying for all the systems considered by us, in some cases chemical interactions disfavor atomic mixing. We show that a simple criterion (analogous to the Hume-Rothery first law for bulk alloys) need not necessarily work for strain-stabilized surface alloys, because of the presence of additional elastic contributions to the alloy heat of formation, that will tend to oppose phase segregation.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures Submitted To Phys. Rev.