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Stepped well-ordered semiconductor surfaces are important as nanotemplates for the fabrication of one-dimensional nanostructures which are candidates of intriguing electronic properties. Therefore a detailed understanding of the underlying…
Well-ordered stepped semiconductor surfaces attract intense attention owing to the regular arrangements of their atomic steps that makes them perfect templates for the growth of one- dimensional systems, e.g. nanowires. Here, we report on…
We study long-range morphological changes in atomic monolayers on solid substrates induced by different types of defects; e.g., by monoatomic steps in the surface, or by the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM), placed at some distance…
This work unravels the atomic details of the interaction of solute atoms with nanoscale crystalline defects. The complexity of this phenomenon is elucidated through detailed atom probe tomographic investigations on epitaxially-strained,…
The role of layer disorder is important in establishing the topological phases of MoTe${_2}$. A rich tapestry of atomic ordering influences the structural phase transitions (SPTs), but there is little understanding of the mechanistic…
We present a first-principles derivation of spatial atomic-sublevel decoherence near dielectric and metallic surfaces. The theory is based on the electromagnetic-field quantization in absorbing dielectric media. We derive an expression for…
Nanoparticle surface structural dynamics is believed to play a significant role in regulating functionalities such as diffusion, reactivity, and catalysis but the atomic-level processes are not well understood. Atomic resolution…
Combining classical electrodynamics and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we develop a general and rigorous theoretical framework that describes the energetics of metal surfaces under high electric fields. We show that the…
Surface diffusion and surface electromigration may lead to a morphological instability of thin solid films and nanowires. In this paper two nonlinear analyses of a morphological instability are developed for a single-crystal cylindrical…
Puzzling trends in surface stress were reported experimentally for Ni/W(110) as a function of Ni coverage. In order to explain this behavior, we have performed a density-functional-theory study of the surface stress and atomic structure of…
Surface plasmons in a centrosymmetric metal nanocrystal have been perceived as achiral, based on the quantum-mechanical theory of molecular optical activity. The one-electron theory is insufficient to describe optical activity in crystals,…
Rapid solidification leads to unique microstructural features, where a less studied topic is the formation of various crystalline defects, including high dislocation densities, as well as gradients and splitting of the crystalline…
We examine the symmetry-breaking effect of fixed constellations of particles on the surface-directed spinodal decomposition of binary blends in the presence of particles whose surfaces have a preferential affinity for one of the components.…
Although atomic diffusion on metal surfaces under high electric fields has been studied theoretically and experimentally since the 1970s, its accurate and quantitative theoretical description remains a significant challenge. In our previous…
Material properties controlled by evolving defect structures, such as mechanical response, often involve processes spanning many length and time scales which cannot be modeled using a single approach. We present a variety of new results…
Electron microscopy techniques are instrumental in the characterization of energy storage materials, with atomic resolution images providing the detailed structural features that are needed to understand their properties. Atomically…
The functional properties of many technological surfaces in biotechnology, electronics, and mechanical engineering depend to a large degree on the individual features of their nanoscale surface texture, which in turn are a function of the…
Pairs of atomic scale terraces on a single crystal metal surface can be made to merge controllably under suitable conditions to yield steps of double height and width. We study the effect of various physical parameters on the formation of…
The discrete and charge-separated nature of matter - electrons and nuclei - results in local electrostatic fields that are ubiquitous in nanoscale structures and are determined by their shape, material, and environment. Such fields are…
Functional properties of nanomaterials strongly depend on their surface atomic structure, but they often become largely different from their bulk structure, exhibiting surface reconstructions and relaxations. However, most of the surface…