Observation of Surface-Melting-Induced Faceting

Abstract
Medium-energy-ion scattering measurements on vicinal surfaces in the [10] zone around Pb(111), at a temperature close to the bulk melting point, demonstrate a new phenomenon, surface-melting-induced faceting. A range is identified of surface orientations θd < θ < θm which are unstable at high temperatures. These vicinal surfaces spontaneously facet into the dry orientation θd and the melted orientation θm.