Tuning the limiting thickness of a thin oxide layer on Al(111) with oxygen gas pressure

We report an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of the oxidation of Al(111) surfaces at room temperature, which reveals that the limiting thickness of an aluminum oxide film can be tuned by using oxygen pressure. This behavior is attributed to a strong dependence of the kinetic potential on the oxygen gas pressure. The coverage of oxygen anions on the surface of the oxide film depends on the gas pressure leading to a pressure dependence of the kinetic potential. Our results indicate that a significantly large oxygen pressure (>1 Torr) is required to develop the saturated surface coverage of oxygen ions, which results in the maximum kinetic potential and therefore the saturated limiting thickness of the oxide film.