A LEED fine structure study of oxygen adsorption on Cu(001) and Cu (111)

Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) have been used to investigate the initial stages of oxidation of two of the low index planes of copper. LEED fine structure features are due to an interference between the measured beam (usually the specular) and a pre-emergent beam. This pre-emergent beam is internally reflected at the surface potential barrier and is subsequently diffracted by the substrate into the same direction as the beam under observation. As a result of the long-range image nature of the barrier potential, a rydberg-like series of peaks, converging on the emergence energy of the pre-emergent beam, is produced. Fine structure features, or threshold effects, occur at very low incident beam energies (typically <40 eV) and are extremely sensitive to the surface order of the crystal. The changes that occur to the fine structure features when atoms are adsorbed onto the surface contain information regarding the nature of the chemisorption process. In some cases it is possible to infer adsorption sites. In this work measurements are made of the fine structure features for the (001) and 111) surfaces of copper as a function of oxygen exposure. Analysis of these data shows that oxygen adsorption on Cu(111) takes place in a disordered manner and results in a roughening of the surface, while for Cu(001) the adsorption produces an ordered overlayer with oxygen atoms in the 2-fold bridge sites. 12 refs., 8 figs