Experiments on individual alumina-supported adatoms and clusters

Abstract

To contribute to an understanding of growth conditions and electronic properties of metal clusters on technologically relevant oxides we have examined the mobility of individual, alumina-supported Pt-adatoms and the optical properties of single supported Ag-clusters. Using field-ion microscopy (FIM) we have prepared and imaged an individual Pt-adatom at approximately 40 K, both on the apex plane of a [1 1 0]-oriented NiAl tip and on a thin alumina film, grown on the same NiAl specimen by oxidation. On the alumina film, the onset temperature for Pt surface diffusion approaches 100 K being distinctively lower than the value 165 K measured on NiAl(1 1 0). Employing the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) as a local electron source, photon emission from individual, alumina-supported Ag-clusters was spectroscopically analyzed. The occurrence of a distinct emission line is explained by the decay of a collective electron oscillation (Mie-plasmon resonance). For decreasing Ag-cluster diameter, the emission lines (i) shift to higher energies and (ii) their widths increase. To explain these observations, we discuss (i) the reduced screening of the plasmon oscillation due to the Ag 4d electrons and (ii) an enhanced electron surface scattering rate in small clusters.