Article,

Adsorption and accommodation of Xe on Pt111

, and .
Phys. Rev. Lett., 69 (15): 2240--2243 (October 1992)
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.69.2240

Abstract

We have recorded real-space images of Xe atoms adsorbed in a 4-K Pt111 surface. In the dilute coverage limit, we find nearly all the Xe atoms at step edges. From this observation we deduce a lower limit of hundreds of angstroms that Xe atoms scatter across the surface before becoming thermally accommodated. This result is in sharp contrast to previous studies of metal-atom adsorption on metal surfaces in which it is believed that a large fraction of the impinging atoms remain at their point of impact at low surface temperature. For Xe, once the step sites are nearly saturated, point defects on the Pt111 surface nucleate the growth of compact, incommensurate, rotationally ordered Xe islands. Thus, we have imaged the initiation of the growth of a surface overlayer, and have identified the sites at which this growth begins.

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