Stress induced stripe formation in Pd/W(110)

TL;DR

This paper investigates how stress influences stripe pattern formation in submonolayer Pd on W(110), revealing temperature-dependent pattern changes, disordering mechanisms, and phase transitions through microscopy and diffraction techniques.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the stress-induced stripe formation and the associated phase transitions in Pd/W(110) systems, combining microscopy and diffraction analysis.

Findings

Stripe patterns depend on temperature via boundary and elastic energies.

Stripe disorder occurs when correlation length matches stripe period.

Condensate to lattice-gas transition occurs at higher temperature.

Abstract

A stress-induced stripe phase of submonolayer Pd on W(110) is observed by low-energy electron microscopy. The temperature dependence of the pattern is explained by the change both in the boundary free energy and elastic relaxation energy due to the increasing boundary width. The stripes are shown to disorder when the correlation length of the condensed phase becomes comparable to its period, while the condensate to lattice-gas transition takes place at a higher temperature, as revealed by low-energy electron diffraction.