Publications
Step- vs. kink-formation energies on Pt(111)
Ab-initio kink-formation energies are about 0.25 and 0.18 eV on the (100)- and (111)-microfacet steps of Pt(111), while the sum of the step-formation energies is 0.75 eV/atom. These results imply a specific ratio of formation energies for the two step types, namely 1.14, in excellent agreement with experiment. If kink-formation costs the same energy on the two step types, an inference recently drawn from scanning probe observations of step wandering, this ratio ought to be 1.