Oscillatory relaxation of the Al(110) surface

Abstract

The surface structure of Al(110) is determined by means of r-factor comparisons of new measurements at 100K of LEED intensity-energy spectra with spectra calculated by multiple-scattering theory. The effect of correlations between structural and non-structural variables on the process of structure determination is analysed in detail. The surface structure is found to exhibit a damped, oscillatory relaxation of the interlayer spacings. The relaxations of the first three interlayer spacings, expressed as deviations from the bulk value, are determined to be Delta d1=-8.6%, Delta d2=+5.0% and Delta d3=-1.6%. These results are discussed in the context of previous LEED studies of Al(110) and in the light of recent model calculations of surface structure.