Diffuse scattering from Ge(111) surface at high temperature

On heating a clean Ge(111) surface above 240°C, Ge(111) 2 × 8 surface structure changes to 1 × 1 one. We have first observed twofold splitting diffuse scattering in RHEED patterns from the Ge(111) 1 × 1 surface at high temperatures. A modulated 2 × 2 structure is proposed as a structural model for the diffuse scattering. The Fermi-surface instability of dangling-bond electrons at the surface is studied as an origin of the formation of the modulated structure.     

Analysis of the outermost atomic layer of a surface by low-energy ion scattering

Noble gas ion scattering is used to study the surface of solid targets. It is shown that this technique can be used to obtain a mass spectrum of the first atomic layer of the surface. Since the outermost atoms will largely determine the chemical reactivity and physical properties of the surface, this is an important property for an analytic tool to have. In addition to reflected ions, high-energy recoil ions are sometimes observed.Both the reflected and the recoil ions provide information about the atomic structure of the surface. The various possibilities of ion scattering are demonstrated for bromine, oxygen, sodium and potassium adsorbed on a Si(111) surface, for halogens adsorbed on Ni(100) and for GaP (110), (111) ($\text{111}$) surfaces. The influence of thermal vibrations of surface atoms and of electronic excitation on the spectra is discussed.     

Nickel carbonyl adsorption on the Ni(111) surface

Overlayers formed by the adsorption of Ni(CO)₄ in CO on the Ni(111) surface at 100 K were characterized using high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and thermal desorption spectroscopy. At temperatures below 135 K, molecular nickel carbonyl adsorbs on the CO saturated Ni(111) surface as suggested by several observations. Vibrational transitions characteristic of molecular Ni(CO)₄ are dominant. The energy dependence of both the elastic and inelastic electron scattering cross sections are dramatically altered by Ni(CO)₄ adsorption. All of the mass spectrometer ionization fragments typical of molecular Ni(CO)₄ are observed in the narrow thermal desorption peak at 150 K. The inelastic scattering cross sections for both adsorbed nickel carbonyl and adsorbed CO on the Ni(111) surface suggest that a nonresonant dipole scattering mechanism is dominant.     

Influence of film structure on the surface vibrations of Co/Au(111)

The vibrational properties of thin Co layers on a Au(111) surface have been probed by means of inelastic He-atom scattering at primary beam energies between 25 and 67 meV. The observed dependence of the Au(111) Rayleigh mode intensity on Co coverage and annealing temperature as well as the only weak evidence for phonons of the Co film can be explained in terms of the particular growth mode of Co on the Au(111) surface.     

Direct observation of an ordered step surface reconstruction on Au(111) by scanning tunneling microscopy

Experiments with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) are reported which include the first surface topographic images of Au(111), cleaned and annealed in ultrahigh vacuum. The STM system used for this work includes in situ sample manipulation for sample cleaning, annealing and characterization. Topographs with very large atomically flat (111) regions are obtained and no corrugation on the scale of about 0.1 Å is observed. Some single atomic steps are observed. Surprisingly, ordered arrays of single steps are observed over a large region. These represent a type of surface reconstruction whose repeat period agrees with values derived from previous LEED, TEM and ion scattering measurements. These results represent the first critical information about the surface topography of the Au(111) surface.     

Observation of neutron truncation rod scattering

We report measurements of neutron truncation rod scattering. This surface-induced neutron scattering has been observed at the (111) surface of a perfect Si single crystal by a high-resolution three-crystal scattering experiment. We describe the details of the experiment and discuss the experimental findings within a kinematic approach. Possible applications of this new neutron scattering method lie in the field of surface magnetism and the study of surfaces of light-element systems.     

Survival of He+ ions during grazing scattering from a Ag(111) surface

He+ ions as well as neutral He atoms with keV energies are scattered under a grazing angle of incidence from a clean and atomically flat Ag(111) surface. From a comparison of ion fractions observed after scattering of He+ ions and He atoms we find for energies below some keV small but defined fractions of ions that have survived the complete scattering event with the surface. This feature allows us to clear up the microscopic interaction scenario for Auger neutralization of He+ ions at a Ag(111) surface. The Auger neutralization rates are 2 to 3 orders of magnitude smaller than conventional rates derived from experiments for He+-metal systems and agree with recent calculations.     

Crossover between monopole and multipole plasmon of Cs monolayers on Si(111) individually resolved in energy and momentum

The evolution of the plasmon spectrum of the Si(111) (7 x 7)-Cs surface has been studied by energy loss spectroscopy individually resolved in energy and momentum during the transition from substrate to Cs overlayer metallization. The multipole plasmon is identified by an extremely narrow angular distribution of the inelastic electron scattering, unaccounted for by standard dipole scattering theory. A crossover between multipole and monopole surface plasmon is observed at finite surface wave vectors , depending on Cs coverage, and reveals a high sensitivity of the short-wavelength multipole components on surface morphology.     

Temperature dependence of Pt(111) surface relaxation

A careful investigation of the Pt(111) surface has been carried out, using the MeV heliumscattering technique. The anomalously large surface relaxation effect reported previously has been identified as an experimental artifact resulting from an unexpectedly large surface damage effect at low temperature. Optimum conditions have been established for minimizing the main experimental sources of error: background subtraction, radiation damage, and deviations from the Rutherford scattering law. Using these optimum conditions, a series of scattering measurements has been made over the temperature range 40–300 K. At all temperatures, we observe a significant anisotropy in the 〈111〉 angular scans, indicating an outward relaxation of the Pt(111) surface plane. By comparing this observed anisotropy with a set of Monte Carlo simulations, a value of 0.03 ? 0.01 Å (i.e. 1.3 ? 0.4%) is obtained for the surface relaxation. The temperature dependence of the surface peak also indicates that the enhanced vibrational amplitude of the surface atoms is not nearly as large as had been derived previously from high-temperature LEED studies.     

Vibrational dynamics and surface structure of Bi(111) from helium atom scattering measurements

The Bi(111) surface was studied by elastic scattering of helium atoms at temperatures between 118 and 423 K. The observed diffraction patterns with clear peaks up to third order were used to model the surface corrugation using the eikonal approximation as well as the GR method. Best fit results were obtained with a rather large corrugation height compared to other surfaces with metallic character. The corrugation shows a slight enhancement of the surface electron density in between the positions of the surface atoms. The vibrational dynamics of Bi(111) were investigated by measurements of the Debye-Waller attenuation of the elastic diffraction peaks and a surface Debye temperature of (84 ± 8) K was determined. A decrease of the surface Debye temperature at higher temperatures that was recently observed on Bi nanofilms could not be confirmed in the case of our single-crystal measurements.     

Classical surface scattering computations; Rainbows and energy exchange

Computational techniques (a “response-function” method and a molecular dynamics procedure) for classical calculations of atom-surface scattering are described. The methods are illustrated by calculations for a model of neon scattering from the silver (111) surface. Calculations for clamped and initially stationary lattices show complex classical rainbow effects with multiple rainbows due to scattering from different regions of the crystal surface. These effects are not destroyed by inelasticity or energy exchange with cold crystals. Calculations at higher temperatures show, however, that thermal effects do smear out the rainbow effects and lead to rather featureless angular distributions similar to those observed experimentally for this system.     

Growth mode and interface structure of Ag on the HF-treated Si(111):H surface

A growth mode and interface structure analysis has been performed for Ag deposited at a high temperature of 300°C on the HF-treated Si(111):H surface by means of medium-energy ion scattering and elastic recoil detection analysis of hydrogen. The measurements show that Ag grows in the Volmer-Weber mode and that the Ag islands on the surface are epitaxial with respect to the substrate. The preferential azimuthal orientation is A-type only when Ag is deposited slowly. The interface does not reconstruct to the √3 × √3-Ag structure, which is normally observed for Ag deposition above 200°C on the Si(111)7 × 7 surface, but retain bulk-like structure. The presence of hydrogen at the interface is demonstrated after deposition of thick (1100 Å) Ag films. However, the amount of hydrogen at the interface is not a full monolayer. This partial desorption of hydrogen from the interface explains why the Schottky barrier heights of Ag/Si(111):H diodes are close to those of Ag/Si(111)7 × 7 and Ag/Si(111)2 × 1.     

V2O3(0001) surface termination: phase equilibrium

Complementary but independent medium-energy and low-energy ion scattering studies of the (0001) surfaces of V(2)O(3) films grown on Pd(111), Au(111) and Cu(3)Au(100) reveal a reconstructed full O(3)-layer termination creating a VO(2) surface trilayer. This structure is fully consistent with previous calculations based on thermodynamic equilibrium at the surface during growth, but contrasts with previous suggestions that the surface termination comprises a complete monolayer of vanadyl (V=O) species.     

Angular dependence of auger electron emission from Cu (111) and (100) surfaces

Experimental angular emission profiles of the M_2,3M_4,5M_4,562 eV Cu Auger electrons from clean copper (100) and (111) surfaces in several azimuths are presented. A simple single scattering theory to account for elastic scattering of the Auger electrons by other ion cores in the solid is presented, and calculations have been performed to assess the importance of this process in contributing to the observed angular dependence. These calculations produce angular structure having a similar magnitude and temperature dependence to that observed experimentally, and some featural similarity in peak positions or shapes. It appears that elastic scattering is an important source of angular dependence, and that studies of adsorbed species on surfaces should provide a very sensitive method of surface structure determination.     

Optical phonons in Ge quantum dots obtained on Si(111)

The Raman light scattering from optical phonons of Ge quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a Si(111) surface is studied. A series of Raman lines related to the quantization of phonon spectrum is observed. It is shown that phonon frequencies are adequately described in terms of the elastic properties and the dispersion of the optical phonons of bulk Ge. The strain experienced by the Ge quantum dots is estimated.     

Observation of sputtering damage on Au(111)

The morphology of a Au(111) surface has been observed with the STM (scanning tunneling microscope) after ion bombardment with 2.5 keV Ne⁺ ions at about 400 K. Mostly triangular and hexagonal shaped vacancy islands are seen in the STM topographs. They are bounded by monatomic steps, oriented along the closed packed 110 directions. The general morphology confirms the conclusions inferred from TEAS (thermal energy atom scattering) measurements on ion bombarded Pt(111) surfaces. The observation of a propensity for the formation of {100} microfacetted 110 ledges is discussed.     

Surface-assisted spin Hall effect in Au films with Pt impurities

We show, both experimentally and theoretically, a novel route to obtain giant room temperature spin-Hall effect due to surface-assisted skew scattering. In the experiment, we report the spin-Hall effect in Pt-doped Au films with different thicknesses t(N). The giant spin-Hall angle γ(S)=0.12±0.04 is obtained for t(N)=10 nm at room temperature, while it is much smaller for the t(N)=20 nm sample. Combined ab initio and quantum Monte Carlo calculations for the skew scattering due to a Pt impurity show γ(S)?0.1 on the Au (111) surface, while it is small in bulk Au. The quantum Monte Carlo results show that the spin-orbit interaction of the Pt impurity on the Au (111) surface is enhanced, because the Pt 5d levels are lifted to the Fermi level due to the valence fluctuation. In addition, there are two spin-orbit interaction channels on the Au (111) surface, while only one in bulk Au.     

The scattering of hydrogen,deuterium, and the rare gases from silver (111) single crystals

The scattering of hydrogen, deuterium, and the rare gases from the (111) face of silver has been studied at ultrahigh vacuum. The surfaces were prepared by argon ion bombardment and high temperature annealing. Incident angles between 20° and 65° and surface temperatures between room temperature and 573°K have been investigated. The scattering data exhibit quasi-elastic scattering (He, H₂, D₂), inelastic scattering (Ne, Ar, Kr), and trapping dominated scattering (Xe). Identification of these scattering regimes correlates with D/kT_g and is consistent with similar data from Pt(111) and W(110). The separate effects of microscopic surface roughness and thermal roughening have been identified and thermal attenuation in the elastic regime correlated with dynamical interactions rather than thermal roughening. Trapping and rotational coupling are discussed. Comparison of the data with scattering from epitaxial (111) silver indicates that the epitaxial surfaces are significantly more disordered than the single crystal surfaces.     

Low energy ion scattering and Auger electron spectroscopy studies of clean nickel surfaces and adsorbed layers

Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and noble gas ion scattering (IS) are applied to surface analysis in an in situ comparison of both techniques. Examples are the sorption of S and O on Ni (111). It is shown that IS allows quantitative measurements if a suitable calibration is possible. From the energy dependence of the backscattered intensity and from the surface coverage calibrated by AES an estimate of the energy dependence of the surface neutralization process becomes possible. For S and O a shadowing effect is observed, which enhances the sensitivity of IS in this case. From this shadowing effect it is concluded that the position of the adatoms is above the surface.     

Helium scattering and work function investigation of co adsorption on Pt(111) and vicinal surfaces

CO adsorption on Pt(111) and vicinal Pt(111) surfaces has been studied by means of work function variation and He scattering measurements. AES and LEED were used mainly for correlations with other work. Special attention has been paid to the low coverage regime (θ_co < 0.1) with emphasis on surface structural dependencies. The minimum of the work function versus CO exposure curve occurs at a coverage less than 11% on “kink-free” surfaces. This is much lower than the hitherto commonly accepted value of 33%, and does not relate to any observed LEED superstructure. The value of Δφ_min depends strongly on the surface structure. For an “ideal” Pt(111) surface with a step density less than 10^?3 at a temperature of 300 K, Δφ_min = ?240 meV. The scattering cross section Σ of CO adsorbed on Pt(111) for 63 meV He is typically > 250 Ų, i.e. much larger than expected from the Van der Waals radii of He and CO. For two nominal Pt(111) surfaces with step densities of 10^?2 and less than 10^?3, respectively, the measured Σ values varied by a factor of three. This can be explained by preferential CO occupation of defect sites, which are already not “seen” by thermal helium. By comparing results on a stepped (997) and a kinked (12 11 9) Pt surface with similar defect densities, the kinks are proven to play a decisive role. They probably form saddles in the recently proposed activation barrier for migration between terrace and step sites.