Diffusion of single adatoms of platinum, iridium and gold on platinum surfaces

Abstract

Diffusion of single adatoms of platinum iridium and gold on platinum surfaces has been studied experimentally using field ion microscopy and theoretically using Morse potentials to describe the adatom bonding. The order of increasing activation energies for the surfaces studied was (111), (113), (011), (133), (001) and calculated activation energies agreed satisfactorily with the experimental values. On (113) and (011) platinum the activation energies for the adsorbates increased in the order Au, Pt, Ir. The calculations show that this variation arises largely from differences in the adsorbate binding energy, with the differences in adatom size having little effect. Diffusion of Au on (011) platinum occurred only along the direction of the surface channels, as is to be expected from the surface structure. In contrast, Pt and Ir adatoms were found to diffuse in two dimensions on (011). Since direct inter-channel jumps by adatoms should require large activation energies, it is proposed that the observed inter-channel adatom transfers proceed by a surface vacancy mechanism.