Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 90, Nos. 1/2, 1998, p. 79-101.
Adsorbate-induced surface restructuring is treated in the framework of a statistical lattice-gas model taking into account the possibility of formation of a metastable substrate structure on the clean surface and stabilization of this structure by adsorbate-substrate interaction. With these assumptions, surface restructuring is described in terms of the theory of first-order phase transitions. The proposed model is then employed to analyze (i) the influence of adsorbate-induced changes in the surface on thermal desorption spectra and (ii) the effect of surface restructuring on the propagation of chemical waves in the 2A + B2 -> 2AB reaction. The interplay between reaction-dill'usion kinetics and surface restructuring is shown to result in formation of chemical waves with atomisti-cally sharp spatial features.