Interaction between adsorbed chalcogen and Al atoms on Al(001)

Abstract

First-principles, scattering-theory-based calculations for Al-S and Al-Te dimers adsorbed on a rigid Al(001) film show in both cases that the ad-Al and the chalcogen repel each other when forced to reside in neighboring hollows. This result, which stems from the fact that the through-metal effective repulsion is not compensated by a sufficiently attractive direct adatom interaction, indicates the importance of establishing whether there are any laws governing the nature of the interactions between surface additive atoms and various types of surface defects.