SURFACE RECONSTRUCTION OF NOBLE METALS: MODELS AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

We review recent work on the theory of noble metal surface reconstructions. We put strong emphasis on gold, chosen as a representative prototype system, and discuss in detail its three main faces, Au(100), (110) and (111), a class of (100) vicinals and small clusters. In particular, we discuss the microscopic modeling of these surfaces via a particular many-particle classical Hamiltonian, the so-called glue model, which we have developed in Trieste. Optimal surface structures, obtained by molecular dynamics annealing, are amusingly rich, and can explain several facts known from experiment.