Core level photoemission study of the adsorption of iodine on Ni{100}

Abstract

Synchrotron radiation photoemission from the Ni 3p and I 4d core levels has been studied for iodine adsorbed on Ni{100} in a range of different phases. In the range of chemisorbed structures involving overlayer compression from coverages θ of about 0.3 to 0.4 the I 4d photoemission binding energies decrease by ~0.3 eV, while further compression to a c(2 × 2) structure leads to a further decrease by ~0.4 eV. Low temperature adsorption of molecular iodine shows a binding energy of 0.1 eV lower still. In the chemisorbed coverage range these core level shifts are found to be substantially less than the I-I repulsive energy interactions and are associated with the through-metal component of this interaction, while the residual component concealed from the photoemission experiments is attributed to through-space overlap interaction. Other processes which may contribute to the observed binding energy shifts, including Coulomb interactions in both initial and final states, are discussed in some detail.