The phonon spectra of low and high index surfaces of copper

We have built a many-body empirical potential for describing the total energy in Cu crystals. Using this potential we first derive the bulk phonon dispersion curves and the surface projected phonon band structure of the (0 0 1) surface. The agreement with experiments is excellent which proves the very good transferability of the potential. We then investigate the vibrational properties of several vicinal surfaces. The results are presented and discussed in relation with recent experiments.