Subsurface islands and superstructures of Cu on Pb(111)

C. Nagl, E. Platzgummer, M. Schmid, P. Varga, S. Speller* and W. Heiland*

Institut für Allgemeine Physik, Technische Universität Wien, A-1040 Wien, Austria
*Fachbereich Physik, Universität Osnabrück, D-49069 Osnabrück, Germany

Surf. Sci 352-354 (1996) 540-545

A new growth mode, namely subsurface island growth, has been identified by means of scanning tunneling microscopy. When Cu is deposited on Pb(111), 3D-Cu islands with a thickness between 1 and 11 layers are immersed several layers deep into the Pb substrate. The Cu islands, which can be classified in four different types, are furthermore covered by a monatomic Pb film. On flat Cu islands, this Pb film shows a corrugation that is strongly dependent on the number of Cu layers beneath. Single Cu layers were found to form a new type of Cu-Pb superstructure islands.

Corresponding author: M. Schmid (schmid< encoded email address >).

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