Surface Reconstructions: 287-288 (Defect and Diffusion Forum)

It is well-known, even at the most elementary level of scientific knowledge, that free surfaces have properties which make them differ from the underlying bulk material. In the case of liquids, it is common knowledge - even among laymen - that the liquid surface acts as though it were a distinct skin-like material. At a slightly more advanced level, it is known that the liquid surface will seek to minimize its total surface energy by minimizing its surface area; thereby affecting its local vapor-pressure and adsorption behavior. In the case of solids too, it has long been known that different crystallographic surfaces have different surface energies and that this can decide which surfaces ‘survive’ during crystal growth, and govern how solids - especially small particles - respond to prolonged annealing. However, although it was perhaps theoretically ‘obvious’, it is only relatively recently (since the 1950s) that it has come to be realized that solid surfaces will seek to mini