Surface rearrangement at complex adsorbate–substrate interfaces

On the basis of the information theory approach we propose a novel statistical scheme for analyzing the evolution of coupled adsorbate–substrate systems, in which the substrate undergoes the adsorbate-induced transformations. A relation between the substrate morphology and the adsorbate thermodynamic state is established. This allows one to estimate the surface structure in terms of incomplete experimental information and the one concerning the adsorbate thermodynamic response to the structural modifications.