Structural rearrangements in the C/W(001) surface system.

Abstract

We have investigated the surface structure of the C/W(001) surface system at submonolayer C coverages using Auger-electron spectroscopy and high-resolution core-level photoelectron spectroscopy. Core-level spectroscopy is a sensitive probe of an atom's local electronic environment; by examining the core levels of the W atoms in the selvedge region, we monitored the response of the substrate to C adsorption. The average shift of the 4f core-level binding energy provided evidence for a heretofore unknown surface reconstruction that occurs upon submonolayer C adsorption. We also performed line-shape analysis on these core-level spectra, and have thereby elucidated the mechanism by which the low-coverage (\ensuremath{\surd}2 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} \ensuremath{\surd}2 )R45\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} structure evolves to a c(3 \ensuremath{\surd}2 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} \ensuremath{\surd}2 )R45\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} arrangement upon further C adsorption. The line-shape analysis also provides corroborating evidence for a proposed model of the saturated C/W(001)-(5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1) surface structure, and suggests that the first two or three atomic W layers are perturbed by the C adsorption and attendant reconstruction.