Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T01:33:31.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nanoscale Structures: Lability, Length Scales, and Fluctuations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Ellen D. Williams
Get access

Abstract

This article is an edited transcript based on the David Turnbull Lecture given by Ellen D. Williams of the University of Maryland on December 2, 2003, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.Williams received the award for “groundbreaking research on the atomic-scale science of surfaces and for leadership, writing, teaching, and outreach that convey her deep understanding of and enthusiasm for materials research.” This article focuses on the special properties of small structures that provide much of the exciting potential of nanotechnology.One aspect of small structures—their susceptibility to thermal fluctuations—may create or necessitate new ways of exploiting nanostructures.The advent of scanned probe imaging techniques created new opportunities for observing and understanding such structural fluctuations and the related evolution of nanostructure.Direct observations show that it is relatively easy for large numbers of atoms—the kinds of numbers that are present in nanoscale structures—to pick up and move about on the surface cooperatively with substantial impact on nano-to micron-scale structures.Such labile evolution of structure can be predicted quantitatively by using length-scale bridging techniques of statistical mechanics coupled with scanned probe observations of structural and temporal distributions.The same measurements also provide direct information about the stochastic paths of structural fluctuations that can be used outside of the traditional thermodynamic framework.Future work involves moving beyond the classical thermodynamic picture to assess the impact that the stochastic behavior has on the physical properties of individual nanostructures.

Keywords

fluctuationslabilitymass transportmorphologyscanned probe microscopystabilitynanocrystalsnanostructure
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 29 , Issue 9 , September 2004 , pp. 621 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Herring, C.Phys. Rev. 82 (1951) p.87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Herring, C. in Structure and Properties of Crystal Surfaces, edited by Gomer, R. and Smith, C.S. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1953) p.5.Google Scholar
3Cahn, J.W.J.de Phys. C6 (suppl.) 43 (1982) p.199.Google Scholar
4Williams, E.D. and Bartelt, N.C.Science 251 (1991) p.393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Williams, E.D.Phaneuf, R.J.Wei, J.Bartelt, N.C. and Einstein, T.L.Surf. Sci. 294 (1993) p.219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Mullins, W.W.Philos. Mag. 6 (1961) p. 1313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7Burton, W.K.Cabrera, N. and Frank, F.C.Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London 243A (1951) p.299.Google Scholar
8Gruber, E.E. and Mullins, W.W.J.Phys. Chem. Solids 28 (1967) p.875.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Fisher, M.E.J.Stat. Phys. 34 (1984) p.667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Villain, J., Grempel, D.R. and Lapujoulade, J., J.Phys. F: Metal Phys. 15 (1985) p.809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Ehrlich, G. and Stolt, K.Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 31 (1980) p.603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Binnig, B. and Rohrer, H.Rev. Mod. Phys. 59 (1987) p.615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Bauer, E.Surf. Sci. 299/300 (1994) p.102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Bartelt, N.C.Tromp, R.M. and Williams, E.D.Phys. Rev. Lett. 73 (1994) p.1656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15Yagi, K.Surf. Sci. Rep. 17 (1993) p.305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Bartelt, N.C.Goldberg, J.L.Einstein, T.L.Williams, E.D.Heyraud, J.C. and Métois, J.J., Phys. Rev.B 48 (1993) p.15453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Rottman, C.Wortis, M.Heyraud, J.C. and Metois, J.J.Phys. Rev. Lett. 52 (1984) p.1009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Pavlovska, A.Dobrev, D. and Bauer, E.Surf. Sci. 326 (1995) p.101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Emundts, A.Bonzel, H.P.Wynblatt, P.Thürmer, K., Reutt-Robey, J., and Williams, E.D.Surf. Sci. 481 (2001) p.13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20Nowicki, M.Bombis, C.Emundts, A. and Bonzel, H.P.Phys. Rev. B 67 075405 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21Thürmer, K., Reutt-Robey, J., Williams, E.D.Emundts, A.Bonzel, H. and Uwaha, M.Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 186102 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22Uwaha, M. and Nozières, P., in Morphology and Growth Unit of Crystals, edited by Sunagawa, I. (Terra Scientific, Tokyo, 1989) p.17.Google Scholar
23Nozieres, P. in Solids Far from Equilibrium, edited by Godrèche, C. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991) p.1.Google Scholar
24Vlachos, D.G.Schmidt, L.D. and Aris, R.Phys. Rev.B 47 (1993) p.4896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25Yasunaga, H. and Natori, A.Surf. Sci. Rep. 15 (1992) p.205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26Rous, P.J.Phys. Rev.B 59 (1999) p.7719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27Liu, D.-J. and Weeks, J.D.Phys. Rev. B 57 (1998) p.14891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28Pierre-Louis, O. and Einstein, T.L.Phys. Rev. B 62 (2000) p.13697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29Nozières, P., J.de Phys. 48 (1987) p.1605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30Bartelt, N.C.Einstein, T.L. and Williams, E.D.Surf. Sci. 312 (1994) p.411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31Khare, S.V. and Einstein, T.L.Phys. Rev.B 57 (1998) p.4782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32Ihle, T.Misbah, C. and Pierre-Louis, O., Phys. Rev. B 58 (1998) p.2289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33Jeong, H.-C. and Weeks, J.D.Surf. Sci. 432 (1999) p.101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34Jeong, H.-C. and Williams, E.D.Surf. Sci. Rep. 34 (1999) p.171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35Giesen, M.Prog. Surf. Sci. 68 (2001) p.1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36Nelson, R.C.Einstein, T.L.Khare, S.V. and Rous, P.J.Surf. Sci. 295 (1993) p.462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37Bartelt, N.C.Einstein, T.L. and Williams, E.D.Surf. Sci. 276 (1992) p.308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38Akutsu, N. and Akutsu, Y.J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 11 (1999) p.6635.Google Scholar
39Lyubinetsky, I.Daugherty, D.Richards, H.L.Einstein, T.L. and Williams, E.D.Surf. Sci. 492 (2001) p.L671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40Rahman, T. S.Kara, A. and Durukanoglu, S.J.Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 (2003) p.S3197.Google Scholar
41Karim, A.Rusanen, M.Koponen, I.T.Ala-Nissila, T., and Rahman, T.S.Surf. Sci. 554 (2004) p.L113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42Jayaprakash, C.Rottman, C. and Saam, W.F.Phys. Rev.B 30 (1984) p.6549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
43Marchenko, V.I. and Parshin, A.Y.Sov. Phys. JETP 52 (1980) p.129.Google Scholar
44Wang, X.-S.Goldberg, J.L.Bartelt, N.C.Einstein, T.L. and Williams, E.D.Phys. Rev. Lett. 65 (1990) p.2430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45Richards, H.L. and Einstein, T.L. “Beyond the Wigner Distribution: Schrodinger Equations and Terrace Width Distributions,” arXiv.org e-print archive, cond-mat/0008089 (accessed August 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46Uwaha, M.J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 57 (1988) p.1681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47Israeli, N. and Kandel, D.Phys. Rev. B 60 (1999) p.5946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48Degawa, M. et al. , in preparation.Google Scholar
49Giesen, M. J.Frohn, Poensgen, M.Wolf, J.F. and Ibach, H.J. Vac. Sci. Technol., A 10 (1992) p.2597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
50Kuipers, L.Hoogeman, M.S. and Frenken, J.W.M.Phys. Rev. Lett. 71 (1993) p.3517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
51Lyubinetsky, I.Dougherty, D.B.Einstein, T.L. and Williams, E.D.Phys. Rev. B 66 085327 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
52Ichimiya, A.Tanaka, Y. and Ishiyama, K.Phys. Rev. Lett. 76 (1996) p.4721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53Ichimiya, A.Hayashi, K.Williams, E.D.Einstein, T.L.Uwaha, M. and Watanabe, K.Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 (2000) p.3662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54Ichimiya, A.Suzuki, M. and Nishida, S.Surf. Sci. 493 (2001) p.555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
55Redner, S.A Guide to First-Passage Processes (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
56Dougherty, D.B.Lyubinetsky, I.Williams, E.D.Constantin, M.Dasgupta, C. and Sarma, S. Das, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 136102 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
57Dougherty, D.B.Bondarchuk, O.Degawa, M. and Williams, E.D.Surf. Sci. 527 (2002) p.L213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
58Krug, J.Kallabis, H.Majumdar, S.N.Cornell, S.J.Bray, A.J. and Sire, C.Phys. Rev. B56 (1997) p.2702.Google Scholar
59Bondarchuk, O.Dougherty, D.B.Degawa, M.Williams, E.D.Constantin, M.Dasgupta, C. and DasSarma, S. “Correlation Time for Step Structural Fluctuations,” arXiv.org e-print archive, cond-mat/0408181 (accessed August 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
60Dasgupta, C.Constantin, M.Sarma, S. Das, and Majumdar, S.N.Phys. Rev. E 69 022101 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar