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Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 016101 (2004) [4 pages]

Creation of an Atomic Superlattice by Immersing Metallic Adatoms in a Two-Dimensional Electron Sea

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Fabien Silly1,*, Marina Pivetta1, Markus Ternes1, François Patthey1, Jonathan P. Pelz2, and Wolf-Dieter Schneider1
1Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
2Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA

Received 27 May 2003; published 9 January 2004

Cerium adatoms, deposited on a Ag(111) surface, are found by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy to self-assemble into large ordered hexagonal arrays covering macroscopically the entire surface. We show that the 32 Å periodicity of the superlattice is caused by the interaction of surface-state electrons with Ce adatoms and that the large-scale formation of the superlattice is governed by a subtle balance between the sample temperature, the surface diffusion barrier, and the concentration-dependent adatom interaction potential.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.016101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.016101
PACS:
68.43.Hn, 68.37.Ef, 73.20.At

*Present address: University of Oxford, Department of Materials, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, U.K.

 
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