An atomic bricklaying rule during the initial growth of silver thin film on the Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface

The growth of silver thin film on the Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface was studied b y AES and CO thermal desorption spectroscopy. At 300 K, the silver growth f ollows the Stranski-Krastanov mode, i,e., layer-by-layer growth up to 1.5 m onolayer (ML) followed by 3D island growth, During the course of the initia l 1.5 ML layer-by-layer growth, the first 0.5 ML silver atoms fill in the m issing-row sites of the-Pt(110)-(1 x 2) surface and form a pseudo Pt(110)-( 1 x 1)-0.5 hit Pt-0.5 Mb. Ag surface structure, then the subsequent 0.5 ML and the last 0.5 ML silver atoms are located on the silver sites and the pl atinum sites of the pseudo (1 x I) surface, respectively. The initial 0.5 M b silver atoms not only block the sites of Pt(110) for CO adsorption, but a lso inhibit the local surface restructuring of the Pt(110)-(1 x 2) to the P t(110)-(1 x 1) induced by CO adsorption. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Sci ence B.V.