Progress in the measurement and modeling of physisorbed layers
Reviews of Modern Physics, 79 (4):
1381 (2007)DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.79.1381
Abstract
This review describes progress in the field of physisorption. Significant
advances in the knowledge of
microscopic structures and interactions of weakly bound adsorbates
are reviewed, including the first
studies for the adsorption sites of rare gases on flat metal surfaces
and at surface steps, the structures
of higher-order commensurate solids, collective excitations in rare-gas
monolayers, molecular
orientations and growth processes in alkane films, and adsorbate diffusion.
The development and
improvement of experimental techniques are reviewed, including high-resolution
thermal desorption
spectroscopy and ellipsometry for studying thermodynamics; low-temperature
scanning tunneling
microscopy, very low current electron diffraction, and surface x-ray
diffraction for studying structures;
inelastic atom scattering for studying collective excitations; quasielastic
helium atom and neutron
scattering and laser techniques for studying diffusion; and the quartz
crystal microbalance for studying
interfacial friction. The present state of knowledge of the physical
adsorption potentials and the role
of the van der Waals interaction are discussed in the context of the
widespread use of
density-functional theory. Experimental and theoretical results for
many adsorption systems are
described and tabulated; a few case studies are presented in which
a unified picture has nearly been
achieved by the synthesis of many contributions. Some new applications
of physisorption are also
presented.