X-ray photoemission study of physically absorbed SF6

The physical adsorption of octahedral SF₆ on Ru(001) has been studied with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in an attempt to see effects on the energy levels resulting from the conformation of the molecule on the surface. Near 80 K surface coverages up to a monolayer have been studied at various steady state pressures of SF₆. Kinetic studies, core level binding energies, and peak areas indicate that the surface species studied was a physically adsorbed monolayer of sf₆. The sticking coefficient of SF₆, at ? 80 K is approximately unity. Also, a multilayer structure was observed at the highest pressures of SF₆. The binding energy of the F(ls) peak for monolayer coverage is centered at 688.2 ± 0.2 eV relative to the Ru Fermi level. while the multilayer F(ls) peak is shifted more than 3.5 eV to higher binding energy. The F(ls) linewidth for one monolayer has a full width at half maximum of 1.75 ± 0.1 eV. The F(ls) linewidth of the multilayer peak narrows with increasing coverage. Its narrowest observed linewidth was 1.35 eV ± 0.1 eV or approximately the same as that found in the gas phase. One of the mechanisms which may account for the F(ls) linewidth with monolayer coverage is a difference in F(ls) binding energy between those F atoms in contact with the substrate and those further away. This may be due to the variation in chemical environment and relaxation effects as a function of distance from tlie substrate. A classical image force calculation including finite screening effects of the substrate indicates that there is a differential binding energy, ΔW. between the F ligands; ΔW = 0.85 ± 0.25 eV, for realistic ranges of adsorption distances from the substrate and screening lengths in the substrate. The observed broadening of the monolayer F(ls) level is consistent with a ΔW of 0.7 ± 0.1 eV, indicating the possible existence of such a mechanism. Adsorption of a monolayer of SF₆ onto the Ru covered with a monolayer of oxygen shifts the F(ls) peak to lower binding energy by 0.8 eV. Similar effects due to oxygen have been observed previously in the physical adsorption of Xe on W(111).