NUCLEI OF THE PT(111) NETWORK RECONSTRUCTION CREATED BY SINGLE-ION IMPACTS

The surface damage induced on Pt(111) by single rare gas ion impacts w ith energies down to a few hundred eV has been investigated by scannin g tunneling microscopy. In addition to craters and adatom islands ther e are also characteristic reconstruction patterns in the vicinity of t he ion impacts. It is demonstrated that these reconstructed areas are nuclei of the reconstruction network which has been discovered recentl y to be induced by Pt vapor phase deposition. The formation of these n uclei by ion bombardment is discussed in terms of currently used damag e generation models.