Halogen adsorption on Fe(100): I. The adsorption of Cl2 studied by AES,LEED, work function change and thermal desorption

The initial sticking probability of chlorine on Fe(100) at room temperature is calculated to be 0.13, and there is evidence to suggest that the chlorine adsorbs into a short lived mobile precursor state above the surface. The work function change, Δφ, is proportional to coverage and reaches a maximum value of 1.43 eV at saturation. At this coverage a c(2 × 4) LEED pattern is formed. On heating, chlorine is lost from the surface, but the mechanism is such that no detectable loss is incurred at a constant elevated temperature. The c(2 × 4) pattern is shown to be a coincidence structure formed from a $\text{(}\text{1}\text{2}\text{3}\text{?1}\text{2}\text{3}\text{)}$ net of chlorine atoms on the Fe(100) substrate. This structure is a special case of the more general $\text{(}\text{1}\text{2}\text{tan}\text{α}\text{?1}\text{2}\text{tan}\text{α}\text{)}$ structure formed at lower concentrations of chlorine. The c(2 × 4) is formed when α = 56.31°, which gives the chlorine atoms a hard sphere diameter of 0.345 nm and a concentration of 0.75 atoms per four-fold site.