The role of three-dimensional bulk clusters in determining surface morphologies of intermetallic compounds: Quasicrystals to clathrates

Abstract

Note: This paper is part of the JCP Special Collection in Honor of Women in Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry.

From high temperature phase formation to transition metal substitution in the Fe/Al9Co2(001) system

“…Thus, the orientation of domain 3 seems to induce a coincidence in reciprocal space between its (3,-1), (1,3), (4,2) spots and (2,-1), (1,2), (3,1) substrate diffraction spots respectively. Similarly, domain 2 would have its (3,1), (1,-3), (4,-2) spots close to or coinciding with (2,1), (1,-2), (3,-1) substrate spots respectively. Within our detection limit, no domain spot could be detected in the close vicinity of the (2,-1), (1,2), (2,1) and (1,-2) substrate spots upon increasing the LEED energy (dynamical inspection).…”

“…Complex metallic alloys (CMA), intermetallic compounds made of at least two elements, are fascinating materials which exhibit unique physical and chemical properties [1]. Built from highly symmetric clusters [2,3], extensive works have been undertaken to address fundamental questions related for instance to their lattice dynamics [4], to their electronic structures [5,6,7] or to the mechanisms responsible for aperiodic long-range ordering [8]. With a wealth of CMA remaining to be discovered and the continuous exploration of phases [9], it is foreseen that new bulk and surface phenomena will emerge.…”