Sequential desorption of dimers from square lattices: A novel mechanism for phase transitions

Abstract

This work describes a novel mechanism for phase transitions during desorption, involving the formation of lattice size dependent intermediate states when there is enough adsorbate mobility. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to analyze the mechanism of the thermal desorption for adsorbed homonuclear dimers on two-dimensional square lattices. The latticegas model with nearest-neighbor repulsive interactions between particles is implemented to study the cases of mobile (with diffusion) and immobile desorption. The number of peaks for the immobile desorption spectra is related to the connectivity of the adsorbed species for both monomer and dimer molecules. However, for the case of mobile desorption, the spectra give information about the desorption mechanism, which differs significantly for monomers and dimers, particularly when the initial temperatures correspond to the critical region.