Surface microstructure of MgO deposited on SiO2 by analysis of plasmon excitations in photoemission experiments

The growth mechanism of increasing amounts of MgO deposited by evaporation on the surface of SiO2 is investigated by factor analysis of the plasmon st ructure behind the Mgls photoelectron peak and by Tougaard background analy sis of the same peak. It is shown that MgO grows in the form of islands on the SiO2 surface. The height of these islands has been related to the inten sity of the surface and the bulk plasmons at each stage of the deposition e xperiment. From these results, an alternative method, based on the analysis of the plasmon structure observed behind X-ray photoelectron peaks, is pro posed for the characterisation of the microstructure in this type of system s. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.