Evidence for Kosterlitz-Thouless type orientational ordering of CF${}_3$Br monolayers physisorbed on graphite

Abstract

Monolayers of the halomethane CF${}_3$Br adsorbed on graphite have been investigated by x-ray diffraction. The layers crystallize in a commensurate triangular lattice. On cooling they approach a three-sublattice antiferroelectric pattern of the in-plane components of the dipole moments. The ordering is not consistent with a conventional phase transition, but points to Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior. It is argued that the transition is described by a 6-state clock model on a triangular lattice with antiferromagnetic nearest neighbor interactions which is studied with Monte-Carlo simulations. A finite-size scaling analysis shows that the ordering transition is indeed in the KT universality class.

4 pages, 5 figures

Cited by in corpus (4)

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