Emission of exoelectrons during oxidation of Cs via thermal activation of a metastable <span class="aps-inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><msubsup><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">O</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">−</mi></mrow></msubsup></mrow></math></span> surface species

R. Grobecker; H. Shi; H. Bludau; T. Hertel; T. Greber; A. Böttcher; K. Jacobi; G. Ertl

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.72.578

Emission of exoelectrons during oxidation of Cs via thermal activation of a metastable $O_{2}^{-}$ surface species

R. Grobecker, H. Shi, H. Bludau, T. Hertel, T. Greber, A. Böttcher, K. Jacobi, and G. Ertl

Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 578 – Published 24 January 1994

Abstract

Exposure of Cs surfaces to $O_{2}$ causes the emission of exoelectrons. With a Cs monolayer on Ru(0001) the maximum yield is observed with an already partly oxidized surface on which a metastable $O_{2}^{-}$ species could be identified. Thermally activated transformation (with an activation energy of 0.8 eV) of this phase leads to dissociation accompanied by exoelectron emission via Auger deexcitation.