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Van der Waals interactions and the limits of isolated atom models at interfaces

Kawai, Shigeki and Foster, Adam S. and Björkman, Torbjörn and Nowakowska, Sylwia and Björk, Jonas and Canova, Filippo Federici and Gade, Lutz H. and Jung, Thomas A. and Meyer, Ernst. (2016) Van der Waals interactions and the limits of isolated atom models at interfaces. Nature communications, 7. p. 11559.

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Abstract

Van der Waals forces are among the weakest, yet most decisive interactions governing condensation and aggregation processes and the phase behaviour of atomic and molecular matter. Understanding the resulting structural motifs and patterns has become increasingly important in studies of the nanoscale regime. Here we measure the paradigmatic van der Waals interactions represented by the noble gas atom pairs Ar-Xe, Kr-Xe and Xe-Xe with a Xe-functionalized tip of an atomic force microscope at low temperature. Individual rare gas atoms were fixed at node sites of a surface-confined two-dimensional metal-organic framework. We found that the magnitude of the measured force increased with the atomic radius, yet detailed simulation by density functional theory revealed that the adsorption induced charge redistribution strengthened the van der Waals forces by a factor of up to two, thus demonstrating the limits of a purely atomic description of the interaction in these representative systems.
Faculties and Departments:05 Faculty of Science > Departement Physik
05 Faculty of Science > Departement Physik > Physik
05 Faculty of Science > Departement Physik > Physik > Nanomechanik (Meyer)
UniBasel Contributors:Jung, Thomas A. and Meyer, Ernst and Kawai, Shigeki and Nowakowska, Sylwia
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:2041-1723
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
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Last Modified:10 May 2023 06:26
Deposited On:29 Jun 2016 14:20

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