Temperature effects on the growth of oxide islands on Cu(1 1 0)

We examined the Cu2O island formation on Cu(1 1 0) as a function of oxidation temperature in the range of 450–650 8C and oxygen pressure of 0.1 Torr. Epitaxial three-dimensional trapezoid island formation was observed for oxidation at the all temperatures and it was found that increasing oxidation temperature increased the thickening rate of the oxide islands. The oxidation at 0.1 Torr was noted to have a smaller nucleation activation energy for the oxide formation as compared to lower pressures.