Recommended values of clean metal surface work functions

Abstract

A critical review of the experimental literature for measurements of the work functions of clean metal surfaces of single-crystals is presented. The tables presented include all results found for low-index crystal faces except cases that were known to be contaminated surfaces. These results are used to construct a recommended value of the work function for each surface examined, along with an uncertainty estimate for that value. The uncertainties are based in part on the error distribution for all measured work functions in the literature, which is included here. The metals included in this review are silver (Ag), aluminum (Al), gold (Au), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), iridium (Ir), molybdenum (Mo), niobium (Nb), nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), rhodium (Rh), ruthenium (Ru), tantalum (Ta), and tungsten (W).