Surfaces: properties and processes

Surface processes are necessary step in the process of synthesis of the new materials, both bulk crystals and thin layers. As such they are the main part of crystallization processes. Growth of crystals is inadvertently the surface process, facilitated by accompanying processes in the bulk. Therefore surface processes are one of the main direction of the research of the Theory Group in Crystallization Laboratory. These processes are inevitably atomic/molecular in scale. The investigation of the surface properties and the processes are investigated using atomic scale language and appropriately formulated language.

The investigations of the surfaces in the Group, are in fact concentrated on the semiconductor surfaces. It has to be noted that the semiconductor surfaces are by far the most complex in nature. The charge imbalance, nonsaturated bonds contribute to strong reconstructions in many cases. Thus the reliable results regarding the semiconductor surfaces properties are difficult to obtain.

Some results regarding the surfaces are more general in nature, the feature that was achieved at the expense of the precision of the presented picture of the investigated systems. The surface investigation may be divided into the following categories:

(i)                 Surfaces at equilibrium

(ii)              Surface close to equilibrium

(iii)            Surface far from equilibrium.