Binding states of Ga and Sn on W and Mo: Structures,evaporation field and its temperature dependence

Binding states of deposited Ga and Sn on the W and Mo substrates were studied by measuring the evaporation fields of the deposited metal atoms at various temperatures. Ga and Sn form two layers: an overlayer and an underneath pseudomorphic layer which directly contacts the substrate surface. The evaporation fieds of the overlayer Ga and Sn atoms were found to be the same on various crystal planes and significantly lower than that of the pseudomorphic Ga and Sn atoms, indicating that the binding between the overlayer atoms and the pseudomorphic atoms is much weaker than that between the pseudomorphic atoms and the substrate W and Mo atoms. The finding that the evaporation field of the pseudomorphic atoms on W is very close to that on Mo while the evaporation field of W is significantly higher than that of Mo was unexpected. Another interesting finding is that the field emission current from the (011) plane is not noticeably affected by the coverage of the mono-atomic Ga layer arranged in the superstructure while the current from other crystal planes covered by the pseudomorphic layer having the same atomic arrangement with the substrate surface is minimized. Furthermore, it has been found that the evaporation field of the Ga overlayer is lower than that of Sn, while the Ga pseudomorph is more stable than Sn pseudomorph on W surface at temperatures below about 100 K. The temperature dependence of the evaporation field was also examined and compared with existing models.