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Matthias Scheffler

Publications and source records attributed to Matthias Scheffler.

At least 199 records · Page 11Linked to original sources
arXiv1997

Surface relaxation and ferromagnetism of Rh(001)

The significant discrepancy between first-principles calculations and experimental analyses for the relaxation of the (001) surface of rhodium has been a puzzle for some years. In this paper we present density functional theory calculations using the local-density approximation and the generalized gradient approximation of the exchange-correlation functional. We investigate the thermal expansion of the surface and the possibility of surface magnetism. The results throw light on several, hitherto overlooked, aspects of metal surfaces. We find, that, when the free energy is considered, density-functional theory provides results in good agreement with experiments.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv1997

Steering and ro-vibrational effects in the dissociative adsorption and associative desorption of H_2/Pd(100)

The interaction of hydrogen with many transition metal surfaces is characterized by a coexistence of activated with non-activated paths to adsorption with a broad distribution of barrier heights. By performing six-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations using a potential energy surface derived from ab initio calculations for the system H_2/Pd(100) we show that these features of the potential energy surface lead to strong steering effects in the dissociative adsorption and associative desorption dynamics. In particular, we focus on the coupling of the translational, rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom of the hydrogen molecule in the reaction dynamics.

cond-mat↗
arXiv1996

Theory of self-diffusion in GaAs

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are employed to investigate the dominant migration mechanism of the gallium vacancy in gaas as well as to assess its free energy of formation and the rate constant of gallium self-diffusion. our analysis suggests that the vacancy migrates by second nearest neighbour hops. the calculated self-diffusion constant is in good agreement with the experimental value obtained in ^69 GaAs/ ^71 GaAs isotope heterostructures and at significant variance with that obtained earlier from interdiffusion experiments in GaAlAs/GaAs-heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv1996

Ab initio study of step formation and self-diffusion on Ag(100)

Using the plane wave pseudopotential method we performed density functional theory calculations on the stability of steps and self-diffusion processes on Ag(100). Our calculated step formation energies show that the {111}-faceted step is more stable than the {110}-faceted step. In accordance with experimental observations we find that the equilibrium island shape should be octagonal very close to a square with predominately {111}-faceted steps. For the (100) surface of fcc metals atomic migration proceeds by a hopping or an exchange process. For Ag(100) we find that adatoms diffuse across flat surfaces preferentially by hopping. Adatoms approaching the close-packed {111}-faceted step edges descend from the upper terrace to the lower level by an atomic exchange with an energy barrier almost identical to the diffusion barrier on flat surface regions. Thus, within our numerical accuracy (approx +- 0.05 eV) there is no additional step-edge barrier to descent. This provides a natural explanation for the experimental observations of the smooth two-dimensional growth in homoepitaxy of Ag(100). Inspection of experimental results of other fcc crystal surfaces indicates that our result holds quite generally.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv1996

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).

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Steering and isotope effects in the dissociative adsorption of H_2/Pd(100)

The interaction of hydrogen with many transition metal surfaces is characterized by a coexistence of activated with non-activated paths to adsorption with a broad distribution of barrier heights. By performing six-dimensional quantum dynamical and classical molecular dynamics calculations using the same potential energy surface derived from ``ab initio'' calculations for the system H_2/Pd(100) we show that these features of the potential energy surface lead to strong steering effects in the dissociative adsorption dynamics. The adsorption dynamics shows only a small isotope effect which is purely due to the quantum nature of hydrogen.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Ab-initio study of the anomalies in the He atom scattering spectra of H/Mo(110) and H/W(110)

Helium atom scattering (HAS) studies of the H-covered Mo(110) and W(110) surfaces reveal a twofold anomaly in the respective dispersion curves. In order to explain this unusual behavior we performed density functional theory calculations of the atomic and electronic structure, the vibrational properties, and the spectrum of electron-hole excitations of those surfaces. Our work provides evidence for hydrogen adsorption induced Fermi surface nesting. The respective nesting vectors are in excellent agreement with the HAS data and recent angle resolved photoemission experiments of the H-covered alloy system Mo_0.95Re_0.05(110). Also, we investigated the electron-phonon coupling and discovered that the Rayleigh phonon frequency is lowered for those critical wave vectors. Moreover, the smaller indentation in the HAS spectra can be clearly identified as a Kohn anomaly. Based on our results for the susceptibility and the recently improved understanding of the He scattering mechanism we argue that the larger anomalous dip is due to a direct interaction of the He atoms with electron-hole excitations at the Fermi level.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Local Isoelectronic Reactivity of Solid Surfaces

The quantity w^N(r) = ( 1/ k^2 T_el)[partial n(r, T_el) / partial T_el]_(v(r),N) is introduced as a convenient measure of the local isoelectronic reactivity of surfaces. It characterizes the local polarizability of the surface and it can be calculated easily. The quantity w^N(r) supplements the charge transfer reactivity measured e.g. by the local softness to which it is closely related. We demonstrate the applicability and virtues of the function w^N(r) for the example of hydrogen dissociation and adsorption on Pd(100).

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Ab initio Molecular Dynamics Study of D_2 Desorption from Si(100)

Ab initio molecular dynamics calculations of deuterium desorbing from Si(100) have been performed in order to monitor the energy redistribution among the hydrogen and silicon degrees of freedom during the desorption process. The calculations show that part of the potential energy at the transition state to desorption is transferred to the silicon lattice. The deuterium molecules leave the surface vibrationally hot and rotationally cold, in agreement with experiments; the mean kinetic energy, however, is larger than found in experiments.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Scattering of hydrogen molecules from a reactive surface: Strong off-specular and rotationally inelastic diffraction

Six-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations of the scattering of H_2 from a Pd(100) surface using a potential energy surface derived from density-functional theory calculations are presented. Due to the corrugation and anisotropy of the PES strong off-specular and rotationally inelastic diffraction is found. The dependence of the diffraction intensitities on the incident kinetic energy is closely examined. In particular we focus on the quantum oscillations for normal and off-normal incidence.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Anisotropy of Growth of the Close-Packed Surfaces of Silver

The growth morphology of clean silver exhibits a profound anisotropy: The growing surface of Ag(111) is typically very rough while that of Ag(100) is smooth and flat. This serious and important difference is unexpected, not understood, and hitherto not observed for any other metal. Using density functional theory calculations of self-diffusion on flat and stepped Ag(100) we find, for example, that at flat regions a hopping mechanism is favored, while across step edges diffusion proceeds by an exchange process. The calculated microscopic parameters explain the experimentally reported growth properties.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Influence of molecular vibrations on dissociative adsorption

The influence of molecular vibrations on dissociative adsorption is studied by six-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations. For the system H_2 at Pd(100), which possesses non-activated pathways, it is shown that large vibrational effects exist and that they are not due to a strongly curved reaction path and a late dissociation-hindering minimum barrier, as was previously assumed. Instead, they are caused by the lowering of the H-H vibrational frequency during the dissociation and the multi-dimensionality of the potential energy surface. Still there are quantitative discrepancies between theory and experiment identified.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Gross and Scheffler Reply

Among other things (e.g. steering and steric effects in dissociative adsorption) we had predicted that the initial sticking probability of H_2 molecules impinging at clean Pd(100) exhibits oscillations, reflecting the quantum nature of the scattering process. In the preceding comment Rettner and Auerbach (RA) analyze experimental results and conclude that these oscillations are not detectable and thus either not existing or at least very small. In this reply we argue that the experimental study of RA is not conclusive to rule out the existence of quantum oscillations in the scattering of H_2 and note several problems and incongruities in their study.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Anomalies in He atom scattering spectra of the H-covered Mo(110) and W(110) surfaces

Helium atom scattering (HAS) studies of the H-covered Mo(110) and W(110) surfaces reveal a twofold anomaly in the respective dispersion curves. In order to explain this unusual behavior we performed density-functional theory calculations of the atomic and electronic structure, the vibrational properties, and the electronic susceptibility of those surfaces. Our work provides evidence for hydrogen adsorption induced Fermi-{}surface nesting. The respective nesting vectors are in excellent agreement with the HAS data and recent angle resolved photoemission experiments of the H-covered alloy system Mo_0.95Re_0.05(110). Also, we investigated the electron-phonon coupling and discovered that the Rayleigh phonon frequency is lowered for those critical wave vectors compared to the clean surfaces. Moreover, the smaller indentation in the HAS spectra can be clearly identified as a Kohn anomaly. Based on our results for the susceptibility and the recently improved understanding of the He scattering mechanism we argue that the larger anomalous dip is due to electron-hole excitations by the He scattering.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Mechanism of Poisoning the Catalytic Activity of Pd(100) by a Sulfur Adlayer

The modification of the potential-energy surface (PES) of H_2 dissociation over Pd(100) as induced by the presence of a (2x2) S adlayer is investigated by density-functional theory and the linear augmented plane wave method. It is shown that the poisoning effect of S originates from the formation of energy barriers hindering the dissociation of H_2. The barriers are in the entrance channel of the PES and their magnitude strongly depends on the lateral distance of the H_2 molecule from the S adatoms.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1996

Six-Dimensional Quantum Dynamics of Adsorption and Desorption of H_2 at Pd(100): No Need for a Molecular Precursor Adsorption State

We report six-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations of dissociative adsorption and associative desorption of the system H_2/Pd(100) using an ab-initio potential energy surface. We focus on rotational effects in the steering mechanism, which is responsible for the initial decrease of the sticking probability with kinetic energy. In addition, steric effects are briefly discussed.

mtrl-th↗
arXiv1995

Adlayer core-level shifts of admetal monolayers on transition metal substrates and their relation to the surface chemical reactivity

Using density-functional-theory we study the electronic and structural properties of a monolayer of Cu on the fcc (100) and (111) surfaces of the late 4d transition metals, as well as a monolayer of Pd on Mo bcc(110). We calculate the ground states of these systems, as well as the difference of the ionization energies of an adlayer core electron and a core electron of the clean surface of the adlayer metal. The theoretical results are compared to available experimental data and discussed in a simple physical picture; it is shown why and how adlayer core-level binding energy shifts can be used to deduce information on the adlayer's chemical reactivity.

mtrl-th↗