Invited Paper HC+SS-ThM12
Curved Single Crystals As Tools to Study Structure Dependences in Surface Science and Gas-Surface Reactions Dynamics

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 11:40 am, Room 103A

The surface science approach has benefited for many decades from the availability of flat single crystal samples of high purity and high surface quality. The traditional flat, polished samples provide the user with a single surface structure that dominates over macroscopic length scales. However, a single sample that provides the user with multiple surface structures may provide additional benefits. For example, in attempts to relate chemical reactivity or selectivity to surface structure, having a continuous range of vicinal surfaces in a single sample can speed up scientific research and circumvent experimental difficulties. Also for studies focusing on either short or long-range effects in adsorbates and electronic states that are perturbed by steps, a single sample with a range of surface structures is an excellent tool. Therefore, we have revived the implementation of curved single crystal surfaces in traditional surface science studies and elaborated the implementation toward gas-surface reaction dynamics. Depending on the bulk crystal structure and the directions of the apex and curvature, many different surface structures are available in a single sample. We show how we now use LEED, AES, STM, TPD, RAIRS and supersonic molecular beam techniques to directly relate surface structure to molecular and dissociative adsorption, desorption, and chemical reactions. We exemplify the possibilities by showing recent results from studies that used a cylindrical Ni single crystal, two curved Ag samples, a Co curved sample and two Pt curved single crystal surfaces with various apex directions.