Atomic-scale surface demixing in a eutectic liquid BiSn alloy
Abstract
Resonant x-ray reflectivity of the surface of the liquid phase of the BiSn eutectic alloy reveals atomic-scale demixing extending over three near-surface atomic layers. Due to the absence of underlying atomic lattice which typically defines adsorption in crystalline alloys, studies of adsorption in liquid alloys provide unique insight on interatomic interactions at the surface. The observed composition modulation could be accounted for quantitatively by the Defay-Prigogine and Strohl-King multilayer extensions of the single-layer Gibbs model, revealing a near-surface domination of the attractive Bi-Sn interaction over the entropy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0501173,
title = {Atomic-scale surface demixing in a eutectic liquid BiSn alloy},
author = {Oleg G. Shpyrko and Alexei Yu. Grigoriev and Reinhard Streitel and Diego Pontoni and Peter S. Pershan and Ben Ocko and Moshe Deutsch and Mati Meron and Binhua Lin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0501173},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages (two-column), 3 figures, 1 table; Added a figure, updated references, discussion; accepted at Phys. Rev. Lett