A study of step defects on NiAl(110) using a curved single crystal surface

In contrast to common flat single crystal surfaces, curved surfaces provide the opportunity to study a large range of vicinals using only one single crystal. Here, we employ a curved NiAl single crystal surface to study step defects on the (110) plane using scanning tunneling microscopy under UHV co...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Piñeiros-Bastidas, Jessika M., Auras, Sabine V., Juurlink, Ludo B.F.
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/353711
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/353711
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:NiAl (110)
Kink formation energy
Curved single crystal
Terrace width
STM
Image analysis
Descrição
Resumo:In contrast to common flat single crystal surfaces, curved surfaces provide the opportunity to study a large range of vicinals using only one single crystal. Here, we employ a curved NiAl single crystal surface to study step defects on the (110) plane using scanning tunneling microscopy under UHV conditions and at room temperature. The direction of curvature is chosen to align with the alternating Al and Ni atom rows, and we image the surface at various positions along its curvature. With very few exceptions, we find only monoatomic step heights to occur with local step densities consistent with the expected values along the macroscopically curved surface. We use our home-built Python-based analysis script to analyze STM images and obtain statistical information on step and kink distributions, a.o. it allows us to determine the kink formation energy.