The formation and properties of adsorbate nanostructures on Cu surfaces

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been used to observe naturally occurring nanostructures formed on the (110) and (100) faces of single-crystal Cu samples. On the (110) surface, a combination of chemical and thermal treatments result in the formation of a periodic array of Cu - O stripes separated by areas of the clean surface. Deposition of submonolayer coverages of N onto both the (100) and (110) faces of Cu results in nanometer-scale islands. On the (100) surface, periodic arrays of N islands are formed. The feasibility of using these islands to create new nanostructures is demonstrated. On the (110) surface, the ability to combine O- and N-induced nanostructures to form an `atomic-scale tartan' is demonstrated.