Lattice gas transition of xenon on a fullerite surface

ORAL

Abstract

We study a lattice-gas transition of xenon atoms on a honeycomb geometry. It is found from experiments and Monte Carlo simulations that this configuration occurs for xenon adsorbed on a substrate consisting on an array of C60 molecules on Ag(111). At very low coverage the atoms occupy strong-binding 3-fold hollow sites between C60 molecules. In this way, they form a commensurate lattice with nearest neighbor distance 0.58 nm. Using a Lennard Jones model for the Xe-Xe potential, the nearest neighbor interaction strength is U=96.7 K. Using the Ising model we estimate the transition critical temperature to be Tc = 36K. We compare with our results from Monte Carlo simulations based on more realistic interactions.

*Research supported by NSF. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231

Authors

  • Silvina Gatica

    • Department of Physics, Howard University
  • Milton W. Cole

    • Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University
    • Pennsylvania State University