Investigation of the (100) Surface of the Ce3Pd20Si6 Intermetallic Cage Compound

Intermetallic cage compounds have crystal structures characterized by three-dimensional (3D) frameworks of host atoms forming cages that may be filled with guest atoms. They can be considered as a class of complex metallic alloys (CMAs), a broad family of crystalline materials having large or giant unit cells in which a cluster substructure exists. Their bulk physical properties have attracted interest in recent years, particularly as several of them are considered as promising thermoelectric materials. As a different type of CMAs, they may exhibit interesting surface properties which have not been explored until now. Here, we report a detailed investigation of the (100) surface of the Ce3Pd20Si6 compound and describe its relationship with the 3D cage framework. The study has been carried out using both experimental surface science methods under ultrahigh vacuum conditions and theoretical calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT). After annealing at moderate temperatures, the surface exhib...