Tailor-made ultrathin manganese oxide nanostripes: 'magic widths' on Pd(1 1 N) terraces

• Published in: Journal of physics. Condensed matter Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 042001 - 10
• Main Authors: Franchini, C, Li, F, Surnev, S, Podloucky, R, Allegretti, F, Netzer, F P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.02.2012; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Boundaries; Condensed matter; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Density; Exact sciences and technology; Manganese oxides; Nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals; Nanostructure; Oxides; Physics; Solid surfaces and solid-solid interfaces; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Surface structure and topography; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Television; Terraces; Finite size effect; Epitaxy; Long-range order; Nanotape; Palladium; Surface structure; Scanning tunneling microscopy; Manganese oxides; Nanopatterning; Transition elements; Density functional method; Ab initio calculations; LEED
• ISSN: 0953-8984; 1361-648X
• DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/24/4/042001

The growth of ultrathin two-dimensional manganese oxide nanostripes on vicinal Pd(1 1 N) surfaces leads to particular stable configurations for certain combinations of oxide stripe and substrate terrace widths. Scanning tunneling microscopy and high-resolution low-energy electron diffraction measurements reveal highly ordered nanostructured surfaces with excellent local and long-range order. Density functional theory calculations provide the physical origin of the stabilization mechanism of 'magic width' stripes in terms of a finite-size effect, caused by the significant relaxations observed at the stripe boundaries.