Electric field-controlled reversible order-disorder switching of a metal tip surface

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that high electric fields can reversibly switch gold surfaces between ordered and disordered states at room temperature, revealing a new way to control surface structures at the atomic level.

Contribution

It provides the first atomic-scale evidence of electric field-induced reversible surface phase transitions in gold at ambient conditions, supported by experimental and computational insights.

Findings

Electric fields induce reversible order-disorder surface switching.

Surface defect formation energy vanishes under high electric fields.

Potential applications in nanodevices and materials science.

Abstract

While it is well established that elevated temperatures can induce surface roughening of metal surfaces, the effect of a high electric field on the atomic structure at ambient temperature has not been investigated in detail. Here we show with atomic resolution using in situ transmission electron microscopy how intense electric fields induce reversible switching between perfect crystalline and disordered phases of gold surfaces at room temperature. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the mechanism behind the structural change can be attributed to a vanishing energy cost in forming surface defects in high electric fields. Our results demonstrate how surface processes can be directly controlled at the atomic scale by an externally applied electric field, which promotes an effective decoupling of the topmost surface layers from the underlying bulk. This opens up opportunities for development of active nanodevices in e.g. nanophotonics and field-effect transistor technology as well as fundamental research in materials characterization and of yet unexplored dynamically-controlled low-dimensional phases of matter.