Diffusion barrier for a Ag adatom on Pt(111)

Abstract

First-principles local density functional (FP-LDF) calculations for a single Ag atom adsorbed on Pt(111) are compared to scanning tunneling microscope (STM) observations of Brune et al. and to embedded atom method (EAM) results of Blandin and Massobrio. The EAM calculations predict a small static diffusion barrier, 0.05 eV which corresponds poorly to the result of the FP-LDF calculation, 0.20 eV. The STM measurements yield a diffusion barrier of 0.16 ± 0.01 eV.