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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 86 » Issue 2
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 252–255 (2001)

Ionic Films on Vicinal Metal Surfaces: Enhanced Binding due to Charge Modulation

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Jascha Repp1, Stefan Fölsch1, Gerhard Meyer1,2, and Karl-Heinz Rieder1
1Institut für Experimentalphysik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
2Paul Drude Institut für Festkörperelektronik, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, D-10117 Berlin, Germany

Received 7 September 2000; published in the issue dated 8 January 2001

NaCl films on Cu(311) exhibit a remarkably strong and localized binding between adlayer and substrate. The binding sites of the ions in the NaCl film with respect to the Cu surface are determined from atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy images. A new model is proposed in which the binding mechanism is controlled by the charge modulation of a regularly stepped surface due to the Smoluchowski effect. This model can be extended to explain the growth of ionic adlayers on regularly stepped and kinked metal surfaces in general.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.252
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.252
PACS:
68.55.-a
 
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