Elementary Diffusion Jump on Iron Surface

Diffusion in and on surfaces has been amply discussed in theoretical work, whereas experimental investigations because of considerable experimental difficulties are rare. That is why understanding of diffusion on surfaces is an issue which still is at its beginning. This is totally different from the situation in bulk (volume) material which has been extensively studied with a great variety of methods and, at least for simple materials as pure metals, ordered alloys, semiconductors, is in an advanced state. Even the atomistics of diffusion has been determined for selected systems. Here we propose to study surface diffusion by nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron radiation (NRS). This should be done by studying the electric field gradient (EFG) relaxations resulting from random fluctuations caused by the movements of atoms on an iron monolayer surface.