Non-alloy/alloy transitions in the Sn/Cu(001) system: An STM, LEED and DFT study

We show that surface alloying during growth of Sn on Cu(001) is inhibited at temperatures below 170 K. We have studied the non-alloying surface structures that are formed starting from low Sn coverage up to 0.65 ML, finding two novel non-alloying surface reconstructions. They were investigated by sc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Machain, Paloma, Gayone, Julio Esteban, Fuhr, Javier Daniel, Ascolani, Hugo del Lujan
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/70236
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/70236
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Alloy
Dft
Leed
Stm
Surface
Transition
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:We show that surface alloying during growth of Sn on Cu(001) is inhibited at temperatures below 170 K. We have studied the non-alloying surface structures that are formed starting from low Sn coverage up to 0.65 ML, finding two novel non-alloying surface reconstructions. They were investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) experiments, and by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Increasing the temperature, we found that the exchange process is activated at 200–240 K causing the transformation of the initial non-alloyed surface into the corresponding alloyed one. The five known reconstructions of the Sn/Cu(100) surface alloy in the studied Sn coverage range are recovered when starting from the low temperature non-alloying phases. We analyze the atomistic processes involved in the non-alloy/alloy transitions, using first-principles calculations of the energy landscape of the Sn/Cu(001) system.