Study of xenon layers on a Cu(111) surface

Abstract

The adsorption of xenon has been studied by SEXAFS on a Cu(111) surface in the monolayer and in the multilayer range. At temperatures ranging between 18 and 47 K, the Xe monolayer has been shown to be incommensurate because (i) the Xe—Xe spacing differs from the distance between easy three-fold-hollow sites (a_Cu√3) and (ii) the coefficient of thermal expansion of the Xe adlayer is much higher than that of copper. In addition, we have found an Xe—Cu distance of 0.345 nm, which compares well with the value determined by a hard-sphere model.