Themed collection New Trends and Challenges in Surface Phenomena, Carbon Nanostructures and Helium Droplets

This themed collection includes a collection of articles on new trends and challenges in surface phenomena, carbon nanostructures and helium droplets.

A Profile of Giorgio Benedek written by the Guest Editors of this Festschrift themed collection.

Many experiments that utilize beams of incident atoms colliding with surfaces as a probe of surface properties are carried out at large energies, high temperatures and with large mass atoms.

Nanoheaters: FCC solid spherical nanocrystal assemblies either dispersed in solution or internalized in tumor cells.

High-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy is a powerful tool to investigate surface excitations (vibrations of chemisorbed atoms and molecules, phonons, plasmons). Here, a perspective on the status and the future perspectives of HREELS is presented.

Helium atom scattering experiments on a “holey” silica bilayer film reveal that the bending rigidity of the material, extracted from phonon dispersion curves, decreases with decreasing material density.

We use synchrotron radiation-induced core level photoemission spectroscopy to investigate the influence of vacancies, produced by ion bombardment, on monolayer graphene/Ni(111) exposed to CO at pressures ranging from ultra-high vacuum up to near ambient (5.6 mbar) conditions.

The cytotoxicity of ionic liquids (ILs) is receiving increasing attention due to their potential biological and environmental impact. We have used atomic force microscopy to investigate the interaction of ILs with supported phospholipid bilayers, as models of biomembranes.

By studying well defined geometries (microspheres) in scanning helium microscopy (SHeM) the default scattering distribution for technological surfaces in SHeM is found to be diffuse and approximately cosine.

We present results of combined density functional theory and many-body theory analysis of the effect of electron–phonon coupling on photoluminescence and ultrafast response of electron doped monolayer MoS₂.

Damping functions are added to the T-Rittner potential of alkali halide diatoms, with the result that the potential has a realistic repulsive potential similar to isoelectronic rare gas dimers, but orders of magnitude deeper attractive wells.

Micron-wide, highly-oriented 3C-SiC platelets are obtained by stacking-fault-driven growth anisotropy.

We report on a method of enhanced elastic and coherent reflection of ⁴He₂ and ⁴He₃ from a micro-structured solid surface under grazing incidence conditions.

We characterise the structure of the quasi-liquid layer at two low-index ice surfaces in the presence of sodium chloride (Na⁺/Cl⁻) ions by molecular dynamics simulations and discuss its effect on crystal growth and surface chemistry on ice.

We assess the reliability of the local density friction approximation and show that, despite the strong approximations involved, it is able to provide a good estimate of the friction force suffered by an atomic particle at a metal surface.

Molecular multi-level spin qudits are very promising for quantum computing, embedding quantum error correction within single objects. We compare the performance of electronic/nuclear molecular qudits in the implementation of quantum error correction.

The 2D form of tellurium, named tellurene, is one of the latest discoveries in the family of 2D mono-elemental materials.

The effect of the band structure anisotropy (triangular, square, and hexagonal wrapping) on the electronic collective excitations (plasmons) in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is studied in the framework of the random-phase approximation.

Thanks to the ultrathin oxide layer, an ordered arrangement of flat-lying porphyrins with a protruding core is obtained on Fe(001).

Putative binding modes (BMs) of quinolones to the bacterial efflux transporter MexB were identified. Multiple interaction patterns are possible, supporting the hypothesis that substrates oscillate between different BMs with similar affinity.

A classical analysis of grazing-incidence, fast atom diffraction (GIFAD) allows us to develop simple analytic results that connect observed phenomena directly to basic aspects of the potential, such as the lateral variation of the well-depth.

We explore the physics of topological lattice models immersed in c-QED architectures for arbitrary coupling strength with the photon field, and investigate the use of the cavity transmission as a topology detector.

Intermediate scattering function for a light adsorbate considered to be distinguishable (black solid curve), boson (blue dashed curve) and fermion (red dotted curve).

The magnetic ground state and hyperfine coupling parameters of first-row transition metal atoms adsorbed on metal-supported MgO ultrathin films are calculated using DFT. The methodological challenges and the role of the support are highlighted.

Quantum effects enable the separation of heavier hydrogen isotopes in their transport through graphdiyne.

Core-level experiments require new adsorption models for phthalocyanine. Incorporation of Si adatoms into the molecules is energetically convenient.

The performance of various computational model chemistries in predicting structural, thermodynamic and optical properties of water-covered carbon and nitrogen containing porous materials is investigated.

A new method to measure surface phonons with a molecular beam is presented.

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations have been applied to study thermal transport properties, such as thermal conductivity and rectification, in nanoporous Si membranes.

Steric hindrance effect in the formation of hybrid sp-sp² carbon structures on Au(111) by on surface synthesis with anthracene-based precursors.

Helium diffraction provides a direct method for measuring the surface thermal expansion of 2D materials.

Computational first-principles investigations on structural properties and stability of He@sI and He@sII clathrate hydrate crystals.

We investigate the influence of the temperature in Fast Atom Diffraction at surfaces. The inelastic profiles broaden rapidly while the elastic one is constant but its intensity decreases with a Debye-Waller factor adapted to grazing incidences.

First-principles calculations of spectroscopy images showing polaronic signatures in intrinsic diamond produced by many-body electron–phonon interactions.

The temperature dependence of the quasi-liquid layer on the surfaces of hexagonal and cubic ice is investigated with molecular dynamics simulations and a selection of different methods to discriminate the phase of molecules.

Phenanthrene anions are stabilized in the ultracold environment of helium nanodroplets. Gentle shrinking of the helium matrix by collisions with helium gas makes the bare phenanthrene anion visible by high-resolution mass spectrometry.

A first principles investigation of the electron–phonon interaction and phonon-mediated pairing strength in a Si(111) supported single-layer Tl–Pb compound reveals strong variations with electronic surface bands and binding energy.

UV excitation selectively enhances Raman scattering from weakly hydrogen-bonded water molecules.

Raman and IR spectra investigation of 2D carbon crystals belonging to the family of graphdiynes (GDYs) and having different structures is performed in this paper, focusing on how these spectra are affected by different topological features.

Electrostatic deflection of a beam of helium nanodroplets containing fullerenes and metal atoms reveals whether these dopants are able to form charge-transfer complexes.

Surface structure analysis of the physisorption system NaCl(100)/Acetylene using quantitative low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) in combination with density functional theory (DFT).

The correlation energy is bounded by an area law ε_corr ≤ CΔ(area), which is a close resemblance of the area law conjecture of entanglement entropy.

We present helium atom scattering measurements, normal to the steps of vicinal Bi(114), together with quantum mechanical scattering calculations. We thus obtain a representation of the surface electronic corrugation of the quasi one-dimensional metal.

The interplay of the atomic structure and phonon spectra of various two-dimensional ordered phases forming during submonolayer (from 0.375 ML to ultimate 0.6 ML) Pb adsorption on a Cu(001) surface is investigated using embedded atom method interatomic interaction potentials.

The structure of the He atoms around SF₅⁺ and SF₆⁺ is investigated both experimentally and theoretically.

Rb atoms were deposited on an Sb₂Te₃ surface. Based on ARPES measurements performed on Rb-doped as well as clean Sb₂Te₃ surfaces it was found that the absolute valence band maximum of Sb₂Te₃ is likely to be found near the bulk Γ point.