The growth of sulfur adlayers on Au(100)

We have studied the growth of S layers adsorbed on Au(100) with low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoemission spectra (XPS), and scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Three phases of S/Au(100) - (2 × 2), trimer, and c(2 × 4) - are identified; the latter two are not previously reported. A dose of S₂ at 300 K transformed Au(100)-(5 × 20) initially into the (2 × 2) phase and formed the c(2 × 4) phase at a saturation coverage. The STM results show that monolayer Au islands formed during the initial S dose and remained throughout the growth, resulting in a rough c(2 × 4) surface. We show that a highly ordered c(2 × 4) phase can be obtained with a flat (2 × 2) phase as an intermediate step during growth. Based on the evolution of XPS and STM images with varied S₂ dose, the components of S 2p are assigned and structural models for the various S/Au(100) phases are proposed. In the (2 × 2) phase, one S atom resides on a four-fold hollow site in each (2 × 2) unit cell, corresponding to a S coverage of 0.25 ML; in the trimer phase, three S atoms form a trimer residing on a four-fold hollow site in each (2 × 2) unit cell, corresponding to a S coverage of 0.75 ML; in the c(2 × 4) phase, there are five S atoms in each primitive unit cell of c(2 × 4); three of them form a trimer residing on a four-fold hollow site, and the other two form a dimer located on the top of the trimer, corresponding to a nominal S coverage of 1.25 ML. With the proposed structural models, the growth of S on Au(100) at 300 K is described in detail.