AVS 45th International Symposium
    Surface Science Division Monday Sessions
       Session SS-MoP

Paper SS-MoP31
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies of the Growth of Copper, Silver and Gold Overlayers on TiO@sub2@(110) in Ultrahigh Vacuum

Monday, November 2, 1998, 5:30 pm, Room Hall A

Session: Surface Science Division Poster Session
Presenter: D.A. Chen, Sandia National Laboratories
Authors: D.A. Chen, Sandia National Laboratories
K.F. McCarty, Sandia National Laboratories
R.Q. Hwang, Sandia National Laboratories
Correspondent: Click to Email
The growth of metal films on oxide surfaces has become an area of increasing technological importance for applications involving electronic devices, sensors, catalysis and ceramic joining. We are investigating the growth of copper, silver and gold overlayers on a TiO@sub2@(110) surface in ultrahigh vacuum in order to develop a fundamental understanding of metal-oxide interactions. After annealing at 1000 K in vacuum, the titania substrate is reduced and becomes sufficiently conductive for scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. The resulting (1x1) TiO@sub2@ surface is characterized by low energy electron diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy as well as STM. Previous work by Diebold and Madey et al. have shown that many transition metals, including copper, grow by three-dimensional island formation on titania. Scanning tunneling microscopy is used to study the nucleation, growth and size distributions of the metal islands as a function of annealing temperature and coverage. Furthermore, by comparing the characteristics of copper, silver and gold overlayers deposited on titania, we will investigate how varying the interaction strength between oxygen at the surface and the admetal affects film growth and morphology. This work was performed under the U.S. Department of Energy contract DE-AC04-94AL85000 and supported in part by the USDOE-OBESDivision of Materials Sciences.