RAYLEIGH-WAVES AT VICINAL SURFACES

The surface dynamics of a stepped vicinal surface is studied using a continuum elastic theory. The surface vibrational Green's function is derived for a cubic crystal terminated at a stepped surface, using the bulk elastic moduli and enforcing the boundary conditions appropriate to a corrugated faceted surface. We apply this model to the dynamics of the Ni(977) surface and study its vibrational spectrum, including several new step induced branches in the Rayleigh spectra. These results are also compared with experimental data recently reported for Ni(977) using inelastic atom scattering.