Ab initio study of the temperature-dependent structural properties of Al(110)

Temperature-dependent structural properties of Al(110) surface have been studied ab initio employing the concepts of the potential-energy surface (PES) and the free-energy surface (FES), with the latter based on the harmonic approximation for lattice dynamics. Three effects have been identified as contributing to the temperature-dependent multilayer relaxation: the bulk-substrate thermal expansion, the effect of asymmetry of PESs, and the entropy-driven shift of the minima of FESs. Thanks to the proper choice of constraints for PESs and FESs, it was possible to find relative contribution of the three effects to variation with temperature of the first three interlayer distances. A very satisfactory agreement of the calculation results with experimental data has been obtained. Also, a reference of the theoretical data to the experimentally observed anisotropic surface melting has been noticed. A softening phonon mode has been identified which is responsible for both: the entropy-driven spectacular expansion of the second interlayer distance and the loss of the surface stability. The latter can be associated with the anisotropic surface melting. The methodology applied has been found to be complementary to previous theoretical works [N. Marzari, D. Vanderbilt, A. De Vita, and M. C. Payne, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3296 (1999); S. Narasimhan, Phys. Rev. B 64, 125409 (2001)], by offering another point of view and additional insight into the relative contribution of different physical effects to the temperature-dependent structural phenomena in Al(110) surface.