LMM Auger primary excitation spectra of copper

The shape and intensity of measured Auger peaks are strongly affected by extrinsic excitations due to electron transport out of the surface and to intrinsic excitations induced by the sudden creation of the two static core holes. Following a method developed for XPS in a previous work [N. Pauly, S. Tougaard, F. Yubero, Surf. Sci.…

Valence band electronic structure characterization of the rutile TiO2 (110)-(1 x 2) reconstructed surface

The electronic structure of the TiO2 (110)-(1 × 2) surface has been studied by means of angular resolved ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (ARUPS). The valence band dispersion along the high symmetry surface directions, [001] and [1–10], has been recorded. The experimental data show no dispersion of the band-gap Ti 3d states. However, the existence of dispersive…

Small Pt nanoparticles on the TiO2 (110)–(1 × 2) surface

Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) has been used to study the initial stages of Pt deposition on the TiO2 (110)–(1 × 2) surface. Experimental STM images recorded for Pt coverage of 0.1 and 0.4 ML, suggest a Volmer-Weber growth. For low coverage and RT deposition, small clusters homogeneously distributed on the surface terraces are observed. However,…

Tribological carbon-based coatings: An AFM and LFM study

In this work some carbon-based coatings were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and lateral force microscopy (LFM) techniques in order to evaluate their microstructure and friction properties at the micro and nanoscale. With this aim, four samples were prepared by magnetron sputtering: an amorphous carbon film (a–C), two nanocomposites TiC/a–C with different phase ratio…