Correlation of Electron Work Function and Surface-Atomic Structure of Some d Transition Metals

✍ Scribed by Surma, S.A.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 227 KB
• Volume: 183
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8965
• DOI: 10.1002/1521-396x(200102)183:2<307::aid-pssa307>3.0.co;2-z

✦ Synopsis

The correlation between the atomic structure of semi-infinite plane surfaces and the electron work function j of crystalline metals is investigated for nine d transition metals. An (hkl)-dependent scalar parameter Dt, expressed in terms of the linear atomic and broken-bond densities, for metal surfaces treated as a plasma of free electrons and atomic cores, is used to linearly approximate j. A linear regression procedure employed yields a high correlation with mean values of experimental j for different planes of a given metal. Two structural ranges of j linearity are found. The trend of work-function variation known from theory and experiment is confirmed. A high correlation is also found for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 1/2 and 3/2 powers of Dt. Polycrystalline j range from ca. 5.40 (Pt) through 4.90 (Re) and 4.52 (W) to ca. 4.13 eV (Ta), and the dipole term varies from 0.23 (W) to ca. 0.38 (Cu) or 0.17 eV (Re). Values of j for crystal planes which lack reported data are predicted.