Introduction to Solid Surface Structure

Abstract

Solid surfaces can be classified into three categories: ideal surfaces, well-defined surfaces and real surfaces. Well-defined surfaces are important as criteria in experimental approaches in surface science, and characteristics of real surfaces are extremely important for the design of practical surface function in industrial applications. Various relaxations and atom adsorptions occur on real surfaces, with their degrees depending on chemical composition, bonding nature, crystallographic orientation and crystallinity. This paper presents general information related to solid surface characteristics from the viewpoint of structural and chemical compositions. Subsequently, characteristics of inorganic and organic materials' real surfaces are also described.