Surface structure of solids

The surfaces of solids are today forms of condensed matter that can be of major technological interest in the fields of electronics, optics, magnetism, adhesion, tribology and catalysis. The particular structure of solid surfaces needs to be precisely controlled in order to understand the phenomena that occur on them. The term structure is used here in a broad sense to include surface crystallography as well as morphology on micrometric and submicrometric scales. The aim of this article is to present the main structural effects encountered at the surface of solid materials. For notions of volume or surface crystallography, the reader is referred to the specialized articles in this treatise. Similarly, the experimental techniques used in surface structural studies will be mentioned here in terms of their use and interest; the reader will find the principle of these techniques in the articles devoted to them in the treatise Analysis and Characterization.