STACKING AND STRUCTURE OF PLATINUM ON CU (111) UP TO 5 MONOLAYERS

A quantitative investigation of the stacking and structure of ultrathi n films of Pt deposited on a Cu (1 1 1) surface has been carried out b y a combination of real space low energy ion scattering (LEIS) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) techniques. At room temperature, P t grew epitaxially on Cu (1 1 1) in the layer-by-layer mode. The Pt fi lms have the regular fee stacking up to 5 Monolayers (ML) determined b y measuring the incident angle dependence associated with shadowing ef fects. The thermal treatment of the Pt films (from monolayer up to fiv e layers) triggered the Pt diffusion and mixing with the Cu substrate to form a Cu3Pt (1 1 1)-like surface alloy over at least three atomic layers. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.