Energy loss spectroscopy (ELS) on the Si-Au system

We report on the energy loss spectroscopy obtained on the clean cleaved Si(111) covered with different gold thickness. The results clearly indicate that in the Si-Au system the interface is characterized by a Si rich phase with a well defined electronic transition at 7.5 eV energy loss. Increasing Au thickness the main changes in the spectrum arise in the low energy loss region and a gold-like behaviour is observed for a gold coverage of 60 monolayers. The effects of annealing at 350°C are reported.