Effects of atomic relaxation and the electronic structure of niobium (100) and (110) surfaces

A comparative analysis of the atomic relaxation and electronic structure of niobium (100) and (110) surfaces has been carried out using the VASP-PAW method. The relaxation-induced changes in interlayer spacings of surface layers demonstrate an oscillating behavior but they substantially differ for the two analyzed surfaces; namely for the (110) surface with the closest atomic packing two outermost surface layers are contracted by 4.3% and the relaxation becomes noticeable for three outer layers, while for the more "open" (100) surface these quantities equal 13.1 and six layers, respectively. An analysis of the layer-by-layer distribution of the densities of states, spatial distribution of the charge density, and densities of states at the Fermi level indicates that the most considerable changes near Fermi level take place for (100) surface.