Atomic-scale structure of dislocations revealed by STM and Molecular Dynamics


J. Christiansen1,2, K. Morgenstern3,4, J. Schiøtz1, K. W. Jacobsen1, K.-F. Braun3, K.-H. Rieder3, E. Lægsgaard4, and F. Besenbacker4

1 Center for Atomic Scale Materials Physics (CAMP) and Department of Physics, Building 307, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

2 Materials Research Department, Risø National Laboratory, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark.

3 Institut für Experimentalphysik, FB Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany

4 CAMP and Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark


Abstract

The intersection between dislocations and a Ag(111) surface has been studied using an interplay of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and molecular dynamics (MD). Whereas the STM provides atomically resolved information about the surface structure and Burgers vectors of the dislocations, the simulations can be used to determine dislocation structure and orientation in the near-surface region. In a similar way, the sub-surface structure of other extended defects can be studied. The simulations show dislocations to reorient the partials in the surface region leading to an increased splitting width at the surface, in agreement with the STM observations. Implications for surface-induced cross slip are discussed.
Physical Review Letters 88, 206106 (2002).
This paper is available online from the Physical Review Letters website. A locally stored version is available here (PDF, 553 kB).

A preprint of the paper is available from the www.arXiv.org preprint archive as paper number cond-mat/0110552.


Last modified: 7 May 2002.

Jakob Schiøtz, schiotz@fysik.dtu.dk