Surface phase transitions

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Abstract
Angle resolved photoemission is a powerful tool to study the surface and bulk electronic structure of solids. In this paper we describe the use of this technique to learn about phase transitions at surfaces at low or high temperatures. The first example that we discuss is surface melting of metals. Predictions that surface melting should occur much below bulk melting have been made, and recently Frenken and Van der Veen have reported the observation of a solid–liquid transition at the (110) surface of lead of 40 K below the bulk melting point. Angle-resolved photoemission with synchrotron radiation is a very good tool to study these phase transitions because it allows us to probe only the first layers. Experiments on Pb(100) and Al(100) will be reported. No evidence of surface melting has been observed. We will also describe a surface metal–insulator transition observed at very low temperatures in Ce hydrides.

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