Weak Adsorption on Complex Surfaces

This project is a collaborative study employing both experimental and theoretical methods to study fundamental questions about forces at surfaces and their implications for the structure and dynamics of thin films. Key problems to be addressed include the basic properties of simple adsorbates on complex surfaces, such as quasicrystals, and the effects of competing interactions in these systems. Properties to be studied include the adsorption energies, film structures, wetting and melting. The techniques to be employed are low-energy electron diffraction, He-atom scattering, computer simulations and state-of-the-art theoretical methods. The importance of these studies is that they will provide a fundamental understanding of adsorption phenomena that will be applicable to many different fields, including nano-patterning, self-assembled monolayers, coatings technology, tribology and chip fabrication. Students and postdoctoral scholars will be trained in fundamental methods, which are applicable to the aforementioned technologies. The research will also include international collaborations, specifically the exchange of students and postdoctoral scholars between US, UK and Finland.

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Surface science is of importance as a subject of both fundamental interest and potential application to many technologies. Principal problems that will be explored in this project include the structures of films that are just one molecule thick. A focus of this research is the determination of where individual molecules sit in relation to the underlying supporting surface. A second major topic is the question of how strongly these films are bound to the surface as well as their dynamics. In some cases, such films are bound to the surface at high temperature, but not at low temperature. In other cases, the reverse is true. These phenomena, and many others, will be explored with diverse experimental, theoretical and computational methods, some of which will be further improved as part of the research. Students will be trained in fundamental methods, which are applicable to industrial concerns such as the development and fabrication of coatings, lubricants, and computer chips. There is also an international component to this research program, including the exchange of students and postdoctoral scholars between US, UK and Finland.