A NEW APPROACH FOR THE RELATIVE SURFACE FREE-ENERGY OF CUBIC MATERIAL WITH TERRACE, STEP, AND KINK STRUCTURES

A new relationship between the relative surface free energy and the surface structure of a cubic material with terrace, step, and kink structures based upon the application of the information theory is presented. Any surface of a face centered cubic crystal exists as combinations of (111), (100), and (110) microfacets with a certain concentration of kinks, corners, and border of terraces. By use of the most dense atomic array, the entire crystallographic surface can be described, including the corresponding relative surface free energy of each kind of site. The results can be correlated with existing experimental data.