Vibrational properties of small cobalt clusters on the Cu(111) surface

Abstract

Vibrational properties of small cobalt clusters (dimer and trimer) adsorbed on the Cu(111) surface are studied using interatomic interaction potentials obtained in a tight-binding approximation. The complete (lateral and vertical) relaxation of the surface, the local phonon density of states, and the polarization of vibration modes of clusters and atoms of the substrate are discussed. It is shown that the adsorption of small cobalt clusters leads to a local modification of the vibrational properties of the substrate surface and to excitation of new vibration modes localized on both the cluster adatoms and substrate surface atoms. An increase in the cluster size causes a decrease in the intensity of peaks of the local density of states and their broadening and also a shift in the frequencies of the peaks.