Energy and structure of uniaxial incommensurate monolayer solids: Application to Xe/Pt(111)

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Abstract
Calculations are reported for uniaxial incommensurate (UIC) structures of a rare-gas monolayer physisorbed on a triangular Bravais surface lattice at T=0. The sign of the substrate corrugation leads to two distinct UIC lattice solutions which have different diffraction signatures. Previously reported experimental data for Xe/Pt(111) are interpreted as showing the positioning of Xe atoms in the commensurate (√3 × √3 )R30° lattice to be atop platinum sites rather than in threefold sites. The magnitude of the substrate corrugation required to stabilize the commensurate lattice is found to be large, in agreement with previous estimates.