Low energy Li+ ion scattering with a combination of LEED has been used
to study thin Pt films on Cu(111) deposited at room temperature (less
than or equal to 50 degrees C) and subsequently heated, At room tempe
rature, Pt grew epitaxially on Cu(111) in the regular fee stacking seq
uence for a thickness of at least five monolayers. For the annealing t
emperature of similar to 300 degrees C, Pt-Cu intermixing was observed
, forming a metastable Cu3Pt surface alloy. Analysis of the surface la
yers was made by analysing the incident angle dependence associated wi
th shadowing effects and comparison to the results obtained from a bul
k Cu3Pt(111) single crystal, revealing that the alloy is Cu3Pt(111) ph
ase over at least three atomic layers, Neither CuPt(111) nor CuPt3(111
) surface phase has been evidenced in this study.