Interaction energy between two atoms chemisorbed at a transition metal surface

A detailed investigation of the interaction energy between two identical monovalent atoms chemisorbed at a transition metal surface is presented in terms of a tight-binding model. The direct interaction between the adatoms is explicitly included in the model. Information on the diadatom chemisorption process is obtained from an algebraical investigation of the limiting cases corresponding to weak and strong adatom-metal couplings. The intermediate coupling domain is studied through a computation carried out in the case of the (100) surface of an s-band simple cubic crystal with or without steps.