Atomic-Scale Surface Demixing in a Eutectic Liquid BiSn Alloy

Journal Article · Fri Sep 02 00:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.106103· OSTI ID:20699399

Shpyrko, Oleg G; Grigoriev, Alexei Yu; Streitel, Reinhard; Pontoni, Diego; Pershan, Peter S ^[1]; Deutsch, Moshe ^[2]; Ocko, Ben ^[3]; Meron, Mati; Binhua, Lin ^[4]

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1. Department of Physics and DEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900 (Israel)
3. Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 (United States)
4. CARS, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)

Resonant x-ray reflectivity of the surface of the liquid phase of the Bi{sub 43}Sn{sub 57} eutectic alloy reveals atomic-scale demixing extending over three near-surface atomic layers. Because of the absence of an underlying atomic lattice which typically defines adsorption in crystalline alloys, studies of adsorption in liquid alloys provide unique insight on interatomic interactions at the surface. The observed composition modulation could be accounted for quantitatively by the Defay-Prigogine and Strohl-King multilayer extensions of the single-layer Gibbs model, revealing a near-surface domination of the attractive Bi-Sn interaction over the entropy.

• OSTI ID: 20699399
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.106103; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ADSORPTION
BINARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
BISMUTH ALLOYS
ENTROPY
EUTECTICS
LAYERS
LIQUID METALS
REFLECTIVITY
SEGREGATION
SURFACES
TIN ALLOYS
X RADIATION