The (110)(1 x 2) missing-row reconstruction of the seven face-centered cubic metals Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Au and Al was studied using the effective medium theory. A clear trend in the tendency to reconstruct was observed upon going from the 3d metals Ni and Cu to 5d metals Pt and Au. The results were considered together with some previous calculations using other many-atom models for total energy calculation in metals. The tendency to undergo reconstruction was found to be related to the anisotropy of surface energies on (111) and (110) surfaces. By investigating the effective two-body and three-body interactions on the surface it was shown that the missing-row reconstruction was related to the effective repulsion between adjacent nearest neighbour rows on the unreconstructed (110) surface. Restriction of the atomic interactions to the nearest neighbours only made all of the many-atom models favour the missing-row structure.

Surface Reconstruction and Many-Atom Models. H.Hakkinen, J.Merikoski, M.Manninen: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 1991, 3, 2755-67