Mesoscopic self-organization induced by intrinsic surface stress on Pt(110)

Scanning tunneling microscopy revealed a quasi-one-dimensional periodic island structure on the clean Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface. The period is about 1500 Angstrom. As indicated by several test experiments, the structure corresponds to the thermodynamic equilibrium. This spontaneous island formation is attributed to mesoscopic self-organization induced by the intrinsic surface stress. It is demonstrated that such mesoscopic structures allow determination of the absolute surface stress. The present result agrees with ab initio calculations.