Scanning-tunneling-microscopy studies of the S-induced reconstruction of Cu(100)

This study utilizes Auger-electron spectroscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to examine sulfur coverages above theta(S)=0.25 on the Cu(100) surface. These large sulfur coverages are observed to induce a restructuring of the copper surface through the removal of copper atoms from terrace sites. The layer produced at room temperature by H2S exposures is composed of small Cu-S aggregates which do not exhibit long-range order, but which orient in the [001] and [010] directions. Heating above 873 K causes tetramer sulfur unit cells to form in a poorly ordered overlayer. Annealing to 1173 K produces a well-ordered (root 17X root 17)R14 degrees structure which shows four sulfur atoms per unit cell in the STM images. Since the sulfur coverage of the (root 17X root 17)R14 degrees structure has been previously measured to contain a total of eight sulfur atoms per unit cell, a structural model is proposed that is consistent with the coverage and STM measurements.