Seminars Archive

Karsten Pohl

Abstract




Monday, December 18, 2000, 14:30


Seminar Room, ground floor, Building "T"


Sincrotrone Trieste, Basovizza




Identifying the forces responsible for self-organization at surfaces



Karsten Pohl

(University of New Hampshire, USA)




ABSTRACT
The spontaneous formation of organized surface structures at
nanometer scales has the potential to surpass our most advanced patterning
techniques. However, the fundamental mechanisms of self-assembly
are usually completely mysterious. Time-resolved scanning tunneling
microscopy was used to study the ordering of self-assembled two-dimensional
structures by monitoring their thermal vibrations [1], analogous to phonon
spectroscopy in the bulk. In strained metal films, elastic distortions
of the adlayer and the substrate are the key ingredient for self-organization.
[1] K. Pohl et al., Nature 397, 238 (1999).