Comparison of oxygen and sulphur adsorption on the (0001) surface of zirconium

Abstract

Low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) have been used to compare the adsorption and coadsorption of O2 and H2S on the (0001) surface of zirconium where exposures are in the one to five Langmuir regime. The new observations made are as follows: (i) that sulphur forms a stable (3 × 3) surface structure after heating to 600° C; (ii) that the Zr(0001) surface with high O coverage adsorbs H2S, whereas the surface with high S coverage does not adsorb oxygen in detectable amounts; and (iii) that for surfaces with adsorbed H2S a sudden increase in the 150 eV to 92 eV Auger peak ratio occurs on heating to 530° C.