Oxygen-induced step-edge faceting; a precursor to (410) planar faceting of Cu(100) vicinal surfaces
✍ Scribed by P.J. Knight; S.M. Driver; D.P. Woodruff
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 392 KB
- Volume
- 259
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0009-2614
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✦ Synopsis
Scanning tunneling microscopy has been applied to an atomistic scale investigation of the oxygen-induced restructuring of a Cu(100) vicinal surface, close to (610) but with average step orientations l0 ° away from [001]. The initial changes upon oxygen adsorption are found to be step-edge faceting to [001] and [010], and [001] step coalescence to form small (410) facets. Annealing enlarges these (410) facets while the much shorter [010] steps coalesce to form (401) facets. The implied strong energetic favouring of (100) step-edges in the presence of oxygen is attributed to the formation of Cu-O-Cu-O linear chains, known to be the stable element of oxygen-induced reconstruction of the ( ) and (100) copper surfaces.