Structural Phase Diagrams for the Surface of a Solid: A Total-Energy, Renormalization-Group Approach

Total-energy calculations based on microscopic electronic structure are combined with position-space renormalization-group calculations to predict the structural phase transitions of the Si(100) surface as a function of temperature. It is found that two distinct families of reconstructed geometries can exist on the surface, with independent phase transitions occurring within each. Two critical temperatures representing order-disorder transitions are calculated.