TIC(001) SURFACE RELAXATION

The rippled relaxation of the TiC(001) surface is examined, using a fu ll-potential linear muffin tin orbital electronic structure calculatio n. We investigate the underlying physics of the relaxation in a manner which forms a close correspondence with historically important, analy tic models of surface relaxation, and compare to previously calculated results for TaC. Unlike a recently reported tight-binding model, our calculations for TiC predict outward relaxation for the surface carbon , and inward relaxation for titanium, which, while reduced in magnitud e, is the same direction of relaxation found in TaC.