Surface characterization of self-assembled N-Cu nanostructures

L.J.CRISTINA; J. C. MORENO-LÓPEZ; S. SFERCO; M. C. G. PASSEGGI(JR); R. A. VIDAL; JULIO FERRÓN

APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2012 vol. 258 p. 2047 - 2051

0169-4332

We report on the process of low energy N2+ implantation and annealing of a Cu(001) surface. Through AES we study the N diffusion process as a function of the substrate temperature. With STM and LEIS we characterize the surface morphology and the electronic structure is analyzed with ARUPS. Under annealing (500 < T < 700 K) N migrates to the surface and reacts forming a CuxN compound that decomposes at temperatures above 700 K. LEIS measurements show that N locates on the four-fold hollow sites of the Cu(001) surface in a c(2 × 2) arrangement. Finally, a gap along the [001] azimuthal direction is determined by ARUPS. DFT calculations provide support to our conclusions.