Rudolf M. Tromp
Ultramicroscopy
We study the differential reactivity of alkanethiols with submonolayers of Au on Si(111), where the surface is a mixture of the Au-rich 3×3 structure and the Au-poor 5 × 2 structure. We expose these binary 2D alloy samples to alkanethiols, while monitoring the induced spatial and structural transformations in real time using a low energy electron microscope (LEEM). Energy-dependent diffraction measurements show that, surprisingly, there is no alkanethiol growth on the Au submonolayers. Instead, S-Si interactions induce a disproportionation of the 5 × 2 structure into the unexpectedly inert 3×3 phase and a Au-depleted phase. We show how this process can be used to reduce the dimensionality of a 2D electron system to 1D.
Rudolf M. Tromp
Ultramicroscopy
Ivan Bespalov, Yu Zhang, et al.
ACS AMI
Raphaël Marchand, Radek Šachl, et al.
Physical Review Applied
A. Fleurence, T.G. Gill, et al.
Applied Physics Letters