Observation of Adsorbate Vibrational Amplitude Modification During a Phase Transformation in the Overlayer

Maya Kiskinova; András Szabó; John T. Yates, Jr

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.2875

Observation of Adsorbate Vibrational Amplitude Modification During a Phase Transformation in the Overlayer

Maya Kiskinova, András Szabó, and John T. Yates, Jr.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2875 – Published 19 December 1988

Abstract

The digital electron-stimulated-desorption-ion-angular-distribution method has been used to observe the amplitude of the low-frequency "frustrated-translational" modes of chemisorbed CO on Pt(111) when the CO adsorbs on empty Pt sites present in a $p (2 \times 2)$ -Se overlayer. Significant changes in the CO vibrational amplitudes are observed during a two-dimensional phase transition driven by repulsive forces in the overlayer. This work represents the first observation of the relationship between the vibrational amplitude of an adsorbed molecule and a phase transformation in an overlayer.

Received 22 August 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.2875

Authors & Affiliations

Maya Kiskinova^*, András Szabó^†, and John T. Yates, Jr.

Surface Science Center, Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260

^*Permanent address: Institute of General & Inorganic Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1040 Sofia, Bulgaria.
^†On leave from Institute for Isotopes, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.