Scaling behavior in adsorption on bivariate surfaces and the determinationof energetic topography

Adsorption of particles with repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions is stu died through Monte Carlo simulation on bivariate surfaces characterized by patches of weak and strong adsorbing sites of size l. Patches can be either arranged in a deterministic chessboard structure or in a random way. Quant ities are identified which scale obeying power laws as a function of the sc ale length l. Consequences of this finding are discussed for the determinat ion of the energetic topography of the surface from adsorption measurements . (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.