Collective surface diffusion near a first-order phase transition

Abstract

For a large class of lattice models we study the thermodynamic factor, $\Phi$, of the collective surface diffusion coefficient near a first-order phase transition between two phases at low temperatures. In a two-phase regime its dependence on the coverage, $\te$, is $Φ\approx \te/[(\te-\te_-)(\te_+ - \te)N]$, where $N$ is the number of adsorption sites and $\te_\pm$ are the single-phase coverages at the transition. In the crossover between the two-phase and single-phase regimes $Φ(\te)$ is shown to have a more complex behavior. The results are applied to a simple 2D lattice model.

9 pages, 4 figures

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• Surface diffusion coefficient near first-order phase transitions at low temperatures