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Free keywords:
Surface-Diffusion; Metal-Surfaces; Long Jumps; Behavior; Oxygen, Adsorption; Phase
Abstract:
The diffusive motion of O atoms adsorbed on Ru(0001) was observed on the atomic scale by scanning
tunneling microscopy with temporal resolution of Z˙10 ms at room temperature. From statistical
analysis of the changes of the atom configurations in sequences of more than 1000 images, mean
residence times of oxygen atoms in the neighborhood of other oxygen atoms were extracted. The
residence times vary by more than 1 order of magnitude over distances of three lattice constants,
indicating the necessity of including the lateral interaction in modeling collective phenomena such as
surface diffusion or reactions. [S0031-9007(99)09081-X]
