Au(111)-Based Nanotemplates by Gd Alloying

A new class of nanostructured templates is obtained by submitting Au111 films to high-temperature vapor deposition of Gd in ultrahigh vacuum. In a low coverage regime, Gd atoms are embedded in the topmost Au layer, inducing a structural transformation of the herringbone reconstruction to create a network of trigons. At higher dose, the reactive deposition of Gd leads to the formation of an atomically perfect GdAu2 surface compound characterized by a long-range periodic Moire pattern. Both the trigon and Moire lattices are highly ordered nanostructures, which turned out to be robust templates to grow metal nanodots. As a test example, Co was deposited at room temperature, forming uniform dots that faithfully arrange by following the underlying trigons or Moire periodicity. For the latter, one can achieve nanodot arrays that exhibit record areal density.