The Surface Structure Database (SSD) : Progress and Applications

K. Hermann¹, M. A. Van Hove², P. R. Watson³

¹Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany,
²Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA,
³Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.

SSD is an interactive PC Windows (3.1 or 95/NT) based database of experimentally determined surface structures. For maximum reliability and usefulness, the structures are critically selected to be completely solved by established techniques. The database is unique in its field and provides extensive information not only about atomic positions, bond lengths and angles, but also about experimental preparation, measurement and analysis methods. The main features of SSD include an advanced (query language based) search and display system, as well as interactive 3D color visualization and analysis tools of great flexibility. It is also possible to generate publication-ready color or gray-scale PostScript prints of any structure. Version 3 of SSD (Surface Structure Database) will appear in late 1998, updating its second version, published in 1996, and its first version of 1993. SSD-3 includes about 1200 quantitative structure analyses as compared to 1000 of SSD-2 (670 of SSD-1) as well as numerous software extensions and improvements. A printed version of SSD-1, called "Atlas of Surface Structures" is available. The critical data gathering process for SSD will be described in detail together with aspects of database handling and statistical information obtained from SSD-3.