Hamburg 2001 – scientific programme

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O: Oberflächenphysik

O 19: Struktur und Dynamik reiner Oberfl
ächen

O 19.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2001, 11:45–12:00, K

How asymmetric islands become symmetric — •M.J. Rost, S.B. van Albada, and J.M.W. Frenken — Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Universiteit Leiden, P.O.Box 9504 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands

The shape of two-dimensional islands on surfaces usually reflects the symmetry of the surface. We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to show that vacancy islands on the two-fold symmetric Au(110) surface have only a single mirror plane. The missing row reconstruction of the surface leads to two different step configurations at opposite sides of the island, which breaks the mirror symmetry. We observe a variety of pathways by which the (vacancy) islands manage to form lower-energy symmetric configurations. From the statistics of observed configurations, we derive the formation energies of steps, kinks and corners.