Preferential sputtering of Pt-Ni alloy single crystals studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

M. Schmid, A. Biedermann, C. Slama, H. Stadler, P. Weigand and P. Varga

Institut für Allgemeine Physik, Technische Universität Wien, A-1040 Wien, Austria

Nucl. Instrum. Methods in Phys. Res. B 82 (1993) 259-268

Due to its different composition, the altered layer of preferentially sputtered alloys has a different lattice constant than the bulk. This lattice mismatch can lead to the formation of dislocations or reconstructions, which have been studied on different cristallographic faces. While a subsurface dislocation network exists on the (111) plane, parallel dislocations are found below the (110) surface. The (100) surface exhibits a shifted-row reconstruction, which is also attributed to the stress induced by lattice mismatch between the bulk and the Pt-enriched surface. The annealing process of the sputtered Pt₂₅Ni₇₅(111) surface is studied in detail by evaluation of the mismatch dislocations and low energy ion scattering data.

Part of this work is on display in the IAP/TU Wien STM Gallery (see the dislocations page).

Corresponding author: M. Schmid (schmid).