Abstract
Equilibrium fluctuations of islands of adsorbed O atoms on Ru(0001) were investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), density functional theory calculations (DFT) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Very ramified islands were observed by high-speed STM that point to complex interactions between the O atoms. The DFT calculations show that, in addition to pairwise attractive interactions between third-nearest neighbors, a repulsive three-body interaction exists between these. MC simulations that include three-body interactions reproduce the observed ordering behavior.
- Received 18 February 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.166102
©2006 American Physical Society