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Atomistic behavior of metal surfaces under high electric fields

Combining classical electrodynamics and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we develop a general and rigorous theoretical framework that describes the energetics of metal surfaces under high electric fields. We show that the behavior of a surface atom in the presence of an electric field c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2019-05
Main Authors: Kyritsakis, Andreas, Baibuz, Ekaterina, Jansson, Ville, Djurabekova, Flyura
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Combining classical electrodynamics and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we develop a general and rigorous theoretical framework that describes the energetics of metal surfaces under high electric fields. We show that the behavior of a surface atom in the presence of an electric field can be described by the polarization characteristics of the permanent and field-induced charges in its vicinity. We use DFT calculations for the case of a W adatom on a W{110} surface to confirm the predictions of our theory and quantify its system-specific parameters. Our quantitative predictions for the diffusion of W-on-W{110} under field are in good agreement with experimental measurements. This work is a crucial step towards developing atomistic computational models of such systems for long-term simulations.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1808.07782