PROPERTIES AND INFLUENCE OF SURFACE-DEFECTS

With a few examples the present paper underlines the dramatic influence of atomic scale surface defects on surface processes such as sticking, heterogeneous catalysis, film growth and surface reactions on the one hand as well as the local nature of the structural, vibrational and electronic properties of the defects on the other hand. Since the latter are widely unknown, but some techniques of the necessary resolution are available now, the paper is a call for more systematic investigations on the local properties of surface defects on an atomic scale in order to fathom the ultimate physical reasons for their influence on the above-mentioned and other surface processes.