NONEQUILIBRIUM STATIONARY MICROSTRUCTURES IN SURFACE CHEMICAL-REACTIONS

Adsorbates with attractive lateral interactions between molecules in t he presence of adsorption and thermal desorption are considered. We sh ow that a sufficiently strong nonequilibrium reaction or the process o f photoinduced desorption can destabilize uniform stationary phases of the adsorbates and lead to nonequilibrium microstructures whose wavel ength is typically shorter than the diffusion length and may hence be on the micrometer to nanometer scale. Despite their small sizes, such microstructures are not destroyed by internal statistical fluctuations . [S1063-651X(98)03511-9].