1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: STM image (Pt(110)−(1×2) surface)
Can anybody explain the (a x b) notation in surface reconstruction? I remember it from a class in epitaxy but it was never explained very well and my reading never explained it either. It was always "this is obviously a Si 7x7 surface"
Comment by [deleted] at 25/08/2023 at 18:44 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Extract from one of my comments
"It's a platinum surface (oriented (110) Miller index convention) which shows a reconstruction, basically at the surface, bonds and the bulk symmetry is broken, to lower the energy atoms adopt a different kind of symettry.
Here it is 2x1 because the unit cell at the surface is twice the unit cell of the bulk material, which explains why you see rectangular shapes, there are much more complex reconstructions like the 7x7 reconstruction of silicon."