| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Surface Science | Friday Sessions |
| Session SS1-FrM |
| Session: | Surface Dynamics |
| Presenter: | B. Diaconescu, University of New Hampshire |
| Authors: | B. Diaconescu, University of New Hampshire K. Pohl, University of New Hampshire |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Misfit dislocation networks can be used as natural templates for the growth of 2D large scale ordered arrays of clusters. The strain relaxation in metallic ultra thin films leads to the formation of large scale ordered arrays of dislocations, with unit cell sizes ranging from a few hundred to thousands of atoms. Understanding how the long-range stabilizing forces arrive from atomic interactions will provide a way of controlling the unit cell size and symmetry of the reconstructed surface. Here we show how, using atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy data, the dynamical evolution of vibrations of the 2D network of misfit dislocations of atomically thick Ag films on Ru(0001) can provide opportunities for measuring the long range elastic forces that stabilize the system. Fast-scanning STM data at rates of about 3 s/frame are providing a good temporal resolution of the process. In this way, an elastic constant of about 3 meV/Å-2 was obtained. The large size of the unit cell does not allow for full ab initio calculations, thus the experimentally determined long range stabilizing forces in such systems are related with first principles interaction parameters via 2D Frenkel-Kontorova models.