The diamond surface: I. The structure of the clean surface and the interaction with gases and metals

Abstract Low energy electron diffraction patterns obtained from the (111), (110) and (100) diamond surfaces are presented. The surface atomic spacing for the case of no reconstruction is shown to be approximately that of the bulk. Certain of the cleaned (100) and (111) surfaces were found to reconstruct reproducibly but no reconstruction was observed on the four (110) diamond surfaces that were examined. This phenomenon is tentatively linked to the surface topography of the diamond specimens. The diamond surface is relatively inert to gas attack. No ordered two-dimensional structures are formed with sulphur, oxygen, ammonia or nitrogen. However, electron stimulated adsorption of sulphur from H 2 S occurs on all of the three low index planes. In addition, electron beam induced desorption of sulphur occurs with a cross-section of 5 × 10 −20 cm 2 for the (100) surface. The initial interaction of aluminium with the (111) diamond surface results in a p(2 × 2) structure in accord with previous work. No ordered structures are observed on the (110) and (100) faces. At higher coverages and temperatures, aluminium carbide is formed on all three low index planes, but epitaxial carbide growth is only observed on the (111) surface. A p(2 × 2) nickel structure is observed on the (100) surface at low coverage. No corresponding structures are seen on the remaining two surfaces. At higher coverages the formation of epitaxial nickel islands is deduced from LEED data, and confirmed by electron microscopy. Heating these surfaces to 1000°C produces graphitic carbon at the vacuum interface, and a strong basal plane alignment of the graphite crystallites prevails on the (100) surfaces.

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