Atomically-Resolved Oxidative Erosion and Ablation of Basal Plane HOPG Graphite Using Supersonic Beams of O2 with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Visualization

The detailed mechanism and kinetics for the oxidative erosion and ablation of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) with molecular oxygen has been examined by monitoring the spatiotemporal evolution of the reacting interface. This has been accomplished using a new, unique gas-surface scattering instrument that combines a supersonic molecular beam with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) in ultrahigh vacuum. Using this new instrument, we are able to tightly control the energy, angle, and flux of impinging oxygen along with the surface temperature and examine the reacted surface spanning atomic, nano, and mesocopic length-scales. We observe that different oxidation conditions produce morphologically distinct etching features: anisotropic channels, circular pits, and hexagonal pits faceted along crystallographic directions. These outcomes depend upon independent effects of oxygen energy, incident angle, and surface temperature. Reaction probability increased with beam energy and demonstrated non-Arrhen...

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