A combined LEED/RHEED Auger study of oxygen adsorption on the W(112) surface

LEED, RHEED and Auger spectroscopy have been used to study the adsorption of oxygen on to a clean and carbon contaminated (112) face of tungsten. At room temperature all the features reported previously were observed together with a p(1 × 4) surface structure which appeared at an exposure of about 1. 4L just before the formation of the p(1 × 2). Previously a p(1 × 4) structure has been reported only after heating to 2000K. RHEED showed this p(1 × 4) structure clearly; using LEED, the structure was difficult to distinguish. This appears to confirm suspicions that in some situations involving gas adsorption, RHEED has a greater sensitivity than LEED. Possibly most of these situations involve, as does the present p(1 × 4) structure, monolayer islands where the differing coherence widths of the RHEED and LEED beams account for the differing sensitivities. Carbon on the (112) surface also appears to exist as thin islands, either of the previously reported c(6 × 4) structure, or in smaller amounts, on a surface showing (1 × 1) symmetry. Removal of all carbon by heat treatment alone was found to be impossible in a reasonable time and heating in oxygen was necessary. Oxygen adsorption on a carbon contaminated surface did not give rise to any new structures but rather a reduction in the visibility/formation of the clean surface/oxygen structures.