Multiple sulfur sites in the Cu(100)<i>p</i>(2×2)-S surface structure

Abstract

High-resolution S 2p photoemission spectra of the saturated Cu(100)p(2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2)-S surface show multiple peaks, indicating that sulfur atoms adsorb on multiple sites. This result is related to the domain structure of the adsorbate overlayer, and assigned to sulfur atoms adsorbed within p(2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2) domains or at the boundaries between adjacent domains. The observed difference in core-level binding energies for these two sulfur locations is interpreted as due to frustrated substrate surface reconstruction of the copper atoms at the interdomain boundaries.