Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.117, No.7, 3369-3382, 2002
Phase behavior of films adsorbed on model crystal surfaces
The paper discusses the structure and phase behavior of films adsorbed on the (100) plane of model face-centered cubic crystals characterized by different strength of the surface potential studied by means of Monte Carlo simulation. Melting and disordering of incommensurate and commensurate monolayer and bilayer films formed on strongly attractive surfaces as well as the behavior of small droplets deposited on weakly attractive surfaces are discussed. Besides, the nature of the commensurate-incommensurate transition in monolayer films is considered and shown to exhibit different mechanism depending on the strength of the adsorbing potential. It is also shown that the formation of higher layers, on top of the dense incommensurate solid monolayer, may lead to the restructuring of the first layer and to a partial recovery of epitaxial structure in the film. The crossover from the regime of complete to incomplete wetting is studied with the help of the Monte Carlo simulation method in both canonical and grand canonical ensembles. In particular, discussion focusses on melting and spreading of microdrops deposited on weakly attractive surfaces.