Formation and stability of dense arrays of Au nanoclusters on hexagonal boron nitride/Rh(111)

Matthew C. Patterson, Bradley F. Habenicht, Richard L. Kurtz, Li Liu, Ye Xu, and Phillip T. Sprunger
Phys. Rev. B 89, 205423 – Published 20 May 2014

Abstract

We have studied the nucleation and growth of Au clusters at submonolayer and greater coverages on the h-BN nanomesh grown on Rh(111) by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and density functional theory (DFT). STM reveals that submonolayer Au deposited at 115 K nucleates within the nanomesh pores and remains confined to the pores even after warming to room temperature. Whereas there is a propensity of monoatomic high islands at low temperature, upon annealing, bi- and multilayer Au clusters emerge. Deposition of higher coverages of Au similarly results in Au clusters primarily confined to the nanomesh pores at room temperature. XPS analysis of core-level electronic states in the deposited Au shows strong final-state effects induced by restricted particle size dominating for low Au coverage, with indications that larger Au clusters are negatively charged by interaction through the h-BN monolayer. DFT calculations suggest that the structure of the Au clusters transitions from monolayer to bilayer at a size between 30 and 37 atoms per cluster, in line with our experiment. Bader charge analysis supports the negative charge state of deposited Au.

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  • Received 1 April 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.205423

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Matthew C. Patterson1, Bradley F. Habenicht2, Richard L. Kurtz1, Li Liu3, Ye Xu4, and Phillip T. Sprunger1

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
  • 2Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University of California, Merced, Merced, California 95343, USA
  • 3Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
  • 4Department of Chemical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA

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Issue

Vol. 89, Iss. 20 — 15 May 2014

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