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Studies of the Ag/Cu(110) bimetallic interface using optical second-harmonic generation

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6338477
Optical second harmonic generation (SHG) has recently been shown to be a sensitive, real-time, in situ probe for studying interfaces under many different environments. With regard to atomically clean well-characterized surfaces, SHG has been shown to be sensitive to submonolayer coverages of adsorbates, the structural symmetry or molecular arrangement on the surface, and the surface reordering observed during laser induced melting and recrystallization. Previous SHG studies of bimetallic systems have focused on alkali metal adsorption onto transition metal substrates. In these systems the observed SH response is enhanced by a factor of one thousand upon alkali adsorption, due to the large charge transfer to the substrate. We have chosen to study the growth of Ag overlayers on an atomically clean and well-characterized Cu(110) surface. The Ag overlayer growth on this substrate is known to have some interesting temperature dependent behavior that is typical for systems in which significant three-dimensional clustering is known to be important. Cu and Ag, while electronically similar, are immiscible near room temperature, hence there is no significant surface or bulk alloy formation. 16 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
6338477
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-89-1162; CONF-890306-3; ON: DE89011195
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English