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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 37: Nanostructures at Surfaces III
O 37.1: Invited Talk
Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 14:00–14:30, S054
Metal Complexation of Sulfur on Coinage Metal Surfaces — •Patricia Thiel1, Holly Walen1, Yousoo Kim2, Junepyo Oh2, Hyun Jin Yang2, and Da-Jiang Liu3 — 1Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa USA — 2RIKEN Surface and Interface Science Laboratory, Wako, Saitama Japan — 3Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa USA
It is well known that chemisorbed chalcogens (oxygen, sulfur, selenium) on metal surfaces can induce or lift surface reconstruction. Less well-known is the fact that they can form metal-chalcogen complexes in which the source of metal atoms is the surface itself. Chalcogens can also impact the formation of metal nanostructures during metal deposition, as well as the stability of such nanostructures. We focus on behavior for sulfur (S) on Cu, Ag, and Au surfaces at low coverage (less than 0.1 monolayer) to avoid competition from surface reconstructions, and at low temperature to ensure immobilization. Under these conditions, complex formation is prominent for (111) surfaces of Cu and Ag , where they are proposed to result in a strong destabilization of monolayer islands by providing an alternative vehicle for efficient surface mass transport. For Au(111), S lifts the herringbone reconstruction, but does not produce complexes at low coverage. From these and other studies, a common structural motif emerges: a S-M-S staple-like unit that may be the dominant mass carrier at realistic temperature.