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The equilibrium crystal structure and vibrational properties of the Li/Cu(111) system have been calculated theoretically using the interatomic potentials obtained within the embedded atom method. The submonolayer p(3×3), p(2×2), and (3–√×3–√)R30∘ structures formed at degrees of lithium adsorption from 0.11 to 0.33 monolayer and bilayer (2 × 2)-3Li structure have been considered. Surface relaxation data, phonon spectra, and the local distribution density of vibrational states on the adatoms and atoms of the substrate are presented. The calculations have shown that an increase in the degree of submonolayer adsorption of lithium on the Cu(111) surface results in the dependence of the energy of low-frequency longitudinal vibrations of adatoms that is atypical of alkali metals. The energy of such vibrations decreases in the range from 0.11 to 0.56 monolayer down to imaginary values in the saturated monolayer coating. A further increase in the degree of adsorption to 0.75 monolayer leads to the formation of the dynamically stable Cu(111)-(2 × 2)-3Li structure with the strong hybridization of all types of vibrations of Li atoms and the substrate.

The interplay of the atomic structure and phonon spectra in a variety of two dimensional phases forming during submonolayer Pb adsorption on a Cu(001) surface has been investigated using embedded atom method interatomic interaction potentials. Complementary calculations of the equilibrium atomic structure of these phases were performed using density functional theory. It has been shown that the dynamic stability of the Pb/Cu(001) structures increases with increasing the coverage from 0.375 ML to ultimately 0.6 ML, when a dense Pb layer is formed. The increase of the coverage also results in progressive shift of the Rayleigh mode of the copper surface to higher energy and the appearance of new mixed adsorbate–substrate vibration modes.

The structure and magnetic properties of small Cr clusters, Cr3 and Cr4, adsorbed on the Cu(111) surface have been investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and their vibrational properties have been studied within calculations based on tight-binding second moment approximation interatomic interaction potentials (TBSMA). It has been shown that the magnetic ordering in the Cr clusters significantly affects their crystal structure and symmetry, which influences the vibrational modes of the clusters and nearest neighbor copper atoms. In turn, these modes select potentially possible structures of Cr3 and Cr4, prohibiting the lowest total energy cluster structure as dynamically unstable.

We present a theoretical investigation of the structural and vibrational properties of ordered 2D phases formed by the Li, Na and K atoms on the Cu(0 01) surface. The lattice relaxation, phonon dispersions and polarization of vibrational modes as well as the local density of states are calculated using the embedded-atom method. The obtained structural parameters and vibrational frequencies are in close agreement with available experimental results.

We present a theoretical investigation of the structural and vibrational properties of the K/Cu(110) adsorbed systems using the embedded atom method. The surface relaxation, phonon dispersions, and polarization of vibrational modes as well as the local density of states have been calculated as a function of potassium coverage on reconstructed and unreconstructed Cu(110) surface. On the reconstructed surface, two K-substrate stretching modes have been found, which do not show any coverage dependence. The obtained vibrational frequencies of surface states are in close agreement with available experimental data.

Equilibrium lengths and binding energies, vibrational frequencies, width of the HOMO–LUMO gap, and the magnetic anisotropy energies for one- and two-component dimers of heavy p elements of Groups IV (Sn, Pb), V (Sb, Bi), and VI (Se, Te) with a pronounced relativistic effect have been calculated with the use of the formalism of the density functional theory. It has been shown that it is necessary to take into account the spin–orbit coupling, which significantly affects the energy parameters of clusters. The analysis of the data obtained has revealed that the Pb–Te, Pb–Se, Sn–Te, and Sn–Se dimers have the widest gap at the Fermi level and the lowest reactivity. The magnetic anisotropy energy has been calculated for all single- and doublecomponent dimers and the direction of the easy magnetization axis has been determined.

The growth of Pb ultrathin films on Cu(111) has been long studied in connection with electronic quantum-size effects and for the different temperature-dependent growth kinetics. At low temperature the formation of a wetting layer (1 monolayer (ML)), is followed by an instability of the 2 ML film and a regular layer-by-layer growth is then only observed for more than two monolayers. The 2 ML film was, however, shown to be stabilized by alloying Pb with 20% Tl. This work presents a theoretical study of the dynamics of the wetting layer as well as for 2 ML Pb0.8Tl0.2, 3 and 4 ML Pb on Cu(111) in the 4 × 4 commensurate phase, for which detailed inelastic Helium atom scattering (HAS) spectra have been measured. The present calculations based on the embedded atom method (EAM) include the dynamics of the substrate. Besides leading to a detailed interpretation of the HAS experimental data, the present results are compared with a previous density-functional perturbation theory (DFPT) study for 3 to 7 ML Pb on a rigid substrate. The comparison reveals the role played by the substrate dynamics at the smallest thicknesses, despite the large mass and stiffness differences between Pb and Cu. Also the different thermal expansion of the film with respect to the substrate is shown to cause appreciable anomalies in the temperature and thickness dependence of the phonon dispersion curves.

The binding energy, equilibrium geometry, and vibration frequencies in bimetallic clusters Ni13 − n Al n (n = 0–13) have been calculated using the embedded atom method potentials. It has been shown that the icosahedral structure is the most stable in monoatomic and bimetallic clusters. A tendency of Al atoms to segregate on the cluster surface has been revealed in agreement with the experimental data. The calculations of the atomic vibrations have shown the nonmonotonic dependence of the minimum and maximum vibration frequencies of cluster atoms on its composition and the coupling of their extreme values with the most stable atomic configuration. The increase in the number of Al atoms leads to the shift of the frequency spectrum and the substantial redistribution of the localization of vibrations on the cluster atoms.

Collective vibrational modes of crystal lattices, called phonons, determine fundamental material properties, such as their thermal and electrical conductivities. Bulk phonon spectra are influenced by point defects. More recently, the importance of phonons on nanostructures has come into the focus of attention. Here we show a spatially resolved phonon spectra of point defects that reveal distinctly different signatures for a cavity alone and an impurity atom fully integrated into the surface as opposed to one placed into a cavity. The spectra are indicative for delocalized phonons and localized vibrations, respectively, as confirmed by theory.

The atomic and phonon structures of a Pb ultrathin film on the Al(100) surface have been theoretically studied. Surface relaxation, local density of vibrational states, and polarization of the phonon modes of adatoms and atoms of a substrate have been discussed. It has been shown that the adsorption of Pb results in the oscillating relaxation of the surface of the substrate and warping of the structure in subsurface layers. Comparative analysis of the vibrational characteristics of the pure surface of the substrate and the surface with adatoms has shown that the adsorptive interaction in the system and its dynamic stability are governed by new vibrational modes that are not inherent in pure Al and Pb surfaces.

The binding energy, equilibrium geometry, and vibration frequencies of free clusters Cu n (2 ≤ n ≤ 20) are calculated using the potentials of interatomic interactions found using the tight-binding approximation. The nonmonotonic dependence of the clusters' minimum vibration frequency on their sizes and the extreme values for the number of atoms in a cluster n = 4, 6, 13, and 19 is demonstrated. It is noted that this result agrees with the theoretical and experimental data on stable structures of small and medium metallic clusters. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

We present results of a comparative study of the vibrational spectrum and local density of phonon states in ordered p(2 × 2) and (√3 × √3)R30° structures formed by potassium atoms on the Pt(111) surface. The calculations were performed with tight-binding interatomic interaction potentials. It was found that the mode associated with vertical displacements of K adatoms has an energy of about 20 meV in both K structures. The strength and energy of this mode slightly decreases with increasing coverage. This result is in good agreement with available experimental data. As in time-resolved second harmonic generation measurements, we observed low frequency modes for both structures considered, which are caused by the interaction of potassium with the second layer of the substrate. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.