Adsorbate aggregation and relaxation of low-frequency vibrations

We present a study of resonant vibrational coupling between adsorbates and an elastic substrate at low macroscopic coverages. In the first part of the paper we consider the situation in which adsorbates form aggregates with high local coverage. Based upon our previously published theory, we derive formulas describing the damping rate of adsorbate vibrations for two cases of such aggregation: (i) adsorbates attached to step edges and (ii) adsorbates forming two-dimensional islands. We have shown that damping is governed by local coverage. Particularly, for a wide range of resonant frequencies, the damping rate of adsorbates forming well-separated islands is described by the damping rate formula for a periodic overlayer with the coverage equal to the local coverage in the island. The second part of the paper is devoted to facilitating the evaluation of damping rates for a disordered overlayer. The formula describing the damping rate involves the parameter beta, which is related to the local density of phonon states at the substrate surface and does not allow a closed-form representation. For substrates of isotropic and cubic symmetries, we have developed a good analytical approximation to this parameter. For a vast majority of cubic substrates the difference between the analytical approximation and numerical calculation does not exceed 4%. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)70846-4].