Collective surface diffusion near a first-order phase transition (original) (raw)

For a large class of lattice models we study the thermodynamic factor, Φ, of the collective surface diffusion coefficient near a first-order phase transition between two phases at low temperatures. In a two-phase regime its dependence on the coverage, θ, is Φ ≈ θ/[(θ − θ −)(θ + − θ)N ], where N is the number of adsorption sites and θ ± are the single-phase coverages at the transition. In the crossover between the two-phase and single-phase regimes Φ(θ) is shown to have a more complex behavior. The results are applied to a simple 2D lattice model.