Lw. Bruch et al., The dispersion curves of the three phonon modes of xenon, krypton, and argon monolayers on the Pt(111) surface, J CHEM PHYS, 112(7), 2000, pp. 3314-3332
The dispersion curves of all three phonon modes, the shear horizontal (SH),
longitudinal (LA), and perpendicular (S) vibrations of the two-dimensional
monolayer inert gas solids of xenon, krypton, and argon on Pt(111) have be
en measured by inelastic helium atom scattering (HAS). Previous HAS measure
ments of xenon on other substrates revealed, in addition to the S mode, onl
y a single dispersive mode which deviated strongly from the expected behavi
or of the LA branch, to which it had been assigned. The new measurements no
w identify this mode as the SH mode and all three modes are in excellent ag
reement with calculations based on the inert gas pair potentials determined
from gas and bulk solid data. Possible mechanisms for the excitation of th
e SH branch, which should couple only very weakly to HAS on the basis of sy
mmetry considerations, are discussed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physic
s. [S0021-9606(00)70104-8].