The book covers a variety of questions related to orientational mobility of polar and nonpolar molecules in condensed phases, including orientational states and phase transitions in low-dimensional lattice systems and the theory of molecular vibrations interacting both with each other and with a solid-state heat bath. Special attention is given to simple models which permit analytical solutions and provide a qualitative insight into physical phenomena.
A detailed and rigorous treatment offered by the book is intended mostly for specialists and graduate students in solid state theory and surface physics. It may likewise be attractive for scientists studying the properties of impurity subsystems incorporated in a solid-state bulk or adsorbed on a solid surface, as for instance, intercalated compounds. The researchers in academic institutions or industry who are not strictly surface-oriented but are interested in the subjects mentioned can also take advantage of the material, as a special emphasis on methodological essentials and mathematical tools is provided, thus saving a reader from seeking them elsewhere in the literature. On the other hand, to make the book readable also for neophytes in surface science, the authors tried to keep possibly lucid presentation form throughout the main material (with specific mathematical facets put away into appendices) and to offer a wealth of references on orientational surface structures and vibrational excitations in them. The book is supported by two indices; besides an alphabetical listing of subjects and authors, cross-references will enable a reader to easily access the information both on principal concepts involved and on specific adsorbate compositions.