Formation of a quasicrystalline Pb monolayer on the ten-fold surface of the decagonal Al-Ni-Co quasicrystal

Smerdon, J. A.; Leung, L.; Parle, J. K.; Jenks, C. J.; McGrath, R.; Fournee, V.; Ledieu, J.

Formation of a quasicrystalline Pb monolayer on the ten-fold surface of the decagonal Al-Ni-Co quasicrystal

Authors

Description

Lead has been deposited on the ten-fold surface of decagonal Al72Ni11Co17 to form an epitaxial quasicrystalline single-element monolayer. The overlayer grows through nucleation of nanometer-sized irregular islands and the coverage saturates at 1 ML. The overlayer is well-ordered quasiperiodically as evidenced by LEED and Fourier transforms of STM images. Annealing the film to 600 K improves the structural quality, but causes the evaporation of some material such that the film develops pores. Electronic structure measurements using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy indicate that the chemical interaction of the Pb atoms with the substrate is weak.
12 pages, 5 figures