Local thermodynamic properties of a stepped metal surface: Cu(711)

Using a real-space Green's-function approach to determine the local vibrational density of states with force constants extracted from interaction potentials based on the embedded-atom method, we show that the vibrational free energy and the heat capacity of the step and the terrace atoms on Cu(711) are sensitive to the local atomic environment. We find the vibrational contribution to the excess free energy of the step atoms near room temperature to be a significant fraction of the kink formation energy. Also, the low-temperature heat capacity of the step and terrace atoms exhibit a T-2.2+/-0.1 dependence.