Structure and melting behavior of a lead monolayer adsorbed on a copper substrate.

Abstract

We study the low-temperature structure and the melting behavior of a Pb monolayer adsorbed on a (100) Cu surface. We take into account the interactions between Pb and Cu atoms, and those between Pb adatoms. The potential used is a multibody interaction which is known to be appropriate for bulk transition metals. To carry out our purpose, we have introduced for the first time a multimove Monte Carlo technique and applied the histogram method. The low-temperature structure for the maximum coverage is found to be $c(5\sqrt{2}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}\sqrt{2})R45\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$. The melting transition is of first order. These results are in excellent agreement with experimental observations.