Influence of the metal substrate on the adsorption properties of thin oxide layers: Au atoms on a thin alumina film on NiAl(110)

Thin oxide films grown on metal substrates are widely used in surface science to model bulk oxides, assuming their chemical and electronic properties to be similar. In some cases, however, this might not be justified as the present scanning tunneling microscopy studies demonstrate for Au atoms on a thin alumina film on NiAl(110). Au atoms were evaporated onto the oxide film at a sample temperature of approximately 10 K. At low coverage, this leads to the formation of one-dimensional clusters with unusually large Au-Au distances of 5.6-6.0 A. A direct interaction between the Au atoms can be excluded, and a substrate-mediated mechanism is supposed instead. This assumption is strengthened by the finding that the Au chains exhibit a preferential orientation: They are almost aligned with the [001] direction of the NiAl(110) substrate, clearly indicating that the metal substrate participates in the binding of the Au atoms.