Water adsorbate influence on the Cu(110) surface optical response

Abstract

Surface reflectance anisotropy may be utilized for characterizing surfaces, interfaces, and adsorption structures. Here, the reflectance anisotropy and surface dielectric functions of the thermodynamically most favored water adsorbate structures on the Cu(110) surface (i.e. hexagonal bilayers, pentagonal chains, and partially dissociated water structures) are calculated from density-functional theory and compared with recent experimental data. It is shown that the water overlayer structures modify in a geometry-specific way the optical anisotropy of the bare surface which can be exploited for in situ determination of the adsorption structures. For hexagonal bilayer overlayer geometries, strong features in the vacuum ultraviolet region are predicted. The theoretical analysis shows a noticeable influence of intraband transitions also for higher photon energies and rather slight influences of the van der Waals interaction on the spectral signatures. Water induced strain effects on the surface optical response are found to be negligible.