Scanning tunneling microscopic investigations of the adsorption and segregation of carbon and sulfur on nickel single crystal surfaces

The adsorption and segregation of carbon or sulfur on Ni single crystal surfaces have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). Different adsorbate(segregate)-induced surface modifications have been detected in dependence on the original Ni surface orientation and the kind of nonmetal atoms: i) Adsorption of carbon from ethylene on Ni(111) at 6.7×10^–4 Pa and 1000K leads to the epitaxial growth of a graphitic carbon monolayer which exhibits the structure of the hexagonal basal plane of graphite. However, as is found for highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), only three of six carbon atoms of the (0001) graphite plane are imaged by STM. In contrast, on Ni(771) at 663 to 1000 K carbon islands have been formed but no graphite monolayer formation is detected. This behavior can be understood by considering the aspects that no large-area epitaxy between the graphite basal plane and the Ni(110) terraces exists and that the surface carbon activity was too low to initiate substrate restructuring. ii) Segregation of sulfur (from the Ni bulk containing 5 to 7 ppm S) on Ni(110) at 1043K and _s0.4 ML initiates the growth of sulfur islands which show a c(2×2)-S overlayer structure, whereas on Ni(111) at 823K and _s0.2 ML (average value) a reconstructed surface phase is forming which can be described as an adsorbed two-dimensional sulfide Ni₂S.