Electronic Structure of Alloys, Surfaces and Clusters

Band structure theories have formed the basis for theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of extended solids for many decades now and the methodologies in these subjects are well developed.

However, the application of such techniques fundamentally requires the solid under investigation to be periodic.

In reality there are many important classes of solids that are not periodic three-dimensional lattices.

Alloys, surfaces and clusters are three such non-periodic systems whose various properties have attracted keen interest in the scientific community in recent times.

Understanding the electronic structure of these systems is fundamental not only for the basic science, but also constitutes a very important step in various technological aspects, such as tuning their stabilities, chemical and catalytic reactivities or magnetism.

Theoretical investigation of these non-periodic systems however, requires very different approaches compared to the standard band structure theories.

This book details such approaches for non-periodic systems, detailing the theoretical framework and discussing a range of applications.It focuses on alloys, surfaces and clusters as the most important non-period solids of current interest and thus devotes substantial portions to applications to these systems.

The chapters are written by expert practitioners in the field, giving up-to-date accounts of the specific areas with enough detailed background, so that even a newcomer to the field can follow the development of the theoretical framework besides obtaining the present status of knowledge in the field.

Mookerjee; Abhijit S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Calcutta, Indi,Sarma; D.D.

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India,