Epitaxial growth of Ag on Au(111) studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

Abstract

The initial stages and formation of subsequent layers in the room-temperature epitaxy of Ag on Au(111) have been studied using a scanning tunneling microscope in ultrahigh vacuum. Overall, the growth is layer by layer. At submonolayer coverages growth in fingerlike rows locked to the Au(111) (px J3) rectangular reconstruction is observed. One monolayer of Ag removes the substrate surface reconstruction.Higher coverages exhibit clustering and coalescence by growth in terrace shapes consistent with the symmetry of the Ag(111) surface.

Imaging a buried interface by scanning tunneling spectroscopy of surface states in a metallic system

“…On large terraces one would expect a three-dimensional ͑3D͒ like growth of silver with more exposed Ag layer, as reported in Ref. 17.…”

Microscopic view of epitaxial metal growth: nucleation and aggregation

“…For other metals, on the other hand, nucleation was found to be homogeneous and independent of the mesoscopic order of the 3 p  22-reconstruction. Examples are Ag [249,250], Cu [251], and Al which we will discuss below. 41 Meyer et al noted that the elements displaying preferential nucleation at elbows all have a higher surface free energy than Au and a higher heat of sublimation.…”

Structure and local reactivity of the Au(111) surface reconstruction

“…Au(111) has technical advantages in that it is relatively easy to obtain a clean atomically flat surface. Its unique reconstruction has been characterized experimentally using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [14][15][16][17][18] and other surface science techniques, [19][20][21][22] and a large number of molecular assembly studies have been performed on this surface. 7,12,[23][24][25][26][27][28] The renewed interest in the chemical reactivity on the Au(111) surface is intricately linked to its atomic-level surface structure and its reconstruction, and provides a significant challenge to modern electronic structure theory.…”