Stress engineering at the nanometer scale: Two-component adlayer stripes

¹ Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. - Basovizza-Trieste 34149, Italy, EU
² Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics - Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34151, Italy, EU
³ IOM-CNR Democritos, Theory @ Elettra group - Trieste 34151, Italy, EU
⁴ CELLS-ALBA - Carretera BP 1413, km 3.3, 08290 Cerdanyola del Vallés, Barcelona, Spain, EU
⁵ IOM-CNR Democritos - Trieste 34151, Italy, EU
⁶ Department of Physics, Arizona State University - Tempe, AZ 85287-1504, USA

^a mentest@elettra.trieste.it

Received: 19 January 2011
Accepted: 23 March 2011

Abstract

Spontaneously formed equilibrium nanopatterns with long-range order are widely observed in a variety of systems, but their pronounced temperature dependence remains an impediment to maintain such patterns away from the temperature of formation. Here, we report on a highly ordered stress-induced stripe pattern in a two-component, Pd-O, adsorbate monolayer on W(110), produced at high temperature and identically preserved at lower temperatures. The pattern shows a tunable period (down to 16 nm) and orientation, as predicted by a continuum model theory along with the surface stress and its anisotropy found in our DFT calculations. The control over thermal fluctuations in the stripe formation process is based on the breaking/restoring of ergodicity in a high-density lattice gas with long-range interactions upon turning off/on particle exchange with a heat bath.