Growth and properties of ultrathin silver layers on the Cu(111) face—the influence of the substrate temperature

Abstract

Kinetics of Auger peak heights for Cu-M 2,3VV (62 eV) and Ag-MNN (360 eV) transition are presented for silver adsorption on the Cu(111) face performed at temperatures of 330–795 K and for annealing of 6 ML and 2.5 ML of silver at higher and higher temperatures. The shape of those kinetics is interpreted as a result of a competition between silver adsorption and dissolution of the deposited layer in the sample bulk according to the theoretical predictions concerning the silver surface segregation. The existence of 2 ML → 1 ML and 1 ML → O ML transitions predicted theoretically is experimentally confirmed. Inelastic mean free path for Cu-M 2,3VV Auger electrons λ = 0.48-0.50 nm is experimentally found. Arguments are found that the silver layer growth at 330 K is not the pure Frank-van der Merwe one.