Oxygen adsorption on a Pd(111) surface

The interaction of oxygen with Pd(111) has been studied by means of AES, ELS, thermal desorption (TD), electron stimulated desorption (ESD) and work function measurements. It was found that a very small part ( ～ 2–3%) of the available adsorption sites are contributing to the O⁺ electron stimulated yield, the population of the latter being accompanied by enormously large work function changes (up to ～ 0.9 eV). A mechanism of adsorption and depopulation of these sites involving oxygen bulk and surface diffusion has been proposed.