title: Reconstructing interaction potentials in thin films from real-space images.
abstract: We demonstrate that an inverse Monte Carlo approach allows one to reconstruct effective interaction potentials from real-space images. The method is exemplified on monomolecular ethanol-water films imaged with scanning force microscopy, which provides the spatial distribution of the molecules. Direct Monte Carlo simulations with the reconstructed potential allow for obtaining characteristics of the system which are unavailable in the experiment, such as the heat capacity of the monomolecularly thin film, and for a prediction of the critical temperature of the demixing transition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.|Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Abbestraße 2-12, 10587 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gienger
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Nikolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Severin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.|IRIS Adlershof, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Zum Großen Windkanal 6, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Igor M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Sokolov