Dr. Richards' talk is titled "Statistical Mechanics of Vicinal Crystal Surfaces"

Abstract: Vicinal crystal surfaces are surfaces that resemble, on the atomic level, a staircase. The surface is composed mostly of flat terraces, but these are separated by steps a single atom high. However, due to the effects of thermal noise, these steps are sometimes closer to each other and sometimes farther away. As a result, the distance between them can only be described in terms of a probability function, called a terrace-width distribution (TWD). The steps are also not straight, but rather are said to wander. Both the step wandering and TWD are influenced by interactions between the steps, which can come from both elastic and electronic interactions.

Experimentalists determine important properties of vicinal surfaces, such as the step stiffness and the step-step interaction, by measuring the step wandering and TWD of real crystal surfaces using techniques such as Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. These surface properties influence the stability, or lack thereof, of nanostructures; they also influence the dynamic response of surfaces to electric fields. For both of these reasons, this research has potential applications in microelectronics.

In this talk I will discuss recent work I have performed on the statistical mechanics of vicinal crystal surfaces, concentrating especially on the TWD.