Competition between surface reaction and diffusion of gold deposited onto ZrTe3

Abstract Surface reaction and diffusion of gold, deposited onto the (0 0 1) ZrTe 3 van der Waals (vdW) surface, is studied by transmission electron and scanning tunneling microscopy. It is shown that both processes compete at temperatures as low as room temperature. In case of diffusion the deposited gold mostly disappears from the surface and intercalates into the vdW gaps of the substrate. Residual unreacted gold agglomerates are rather mobile and are often displaced by the scanning tip along the [1 0 0] direction of the substrate. In case of reaction, which usually takes place at somewhat higher substrate temperatures, grains of Zr 3 Te 2 , AuTe 2 and/or Au 2 Te 3 are formed. Contrary to…

Charge density waves in NbSe3: The models and the experimental evidence

a b s t r a c t Charge density wave (CDW) ordering in the prototypical low-dimensional compound NbSe3 is reconsidered. It is shown that the model with two incommensurate modulations, q1 = (0, 0.241, 0) and q2 = (0.5, 0.260, 0.5), localized on type-III and type-I bi-capped trigonal prismatic columns, does not explain details, revealed by various microscopic methods. An alternative explanation, based on the existence of modulated layered nano-domains below both CDW onset temperatures, is suggested. It accounts for the presence of the q2 modulation in the STM images recorded above the T2 CDW transition and for the absence of q2 satellites in the corresponding diffraction patterns. The long per…

The Instability of the NbTe2 Surface Structure

Low energy electron diffraction from clean NbTe 2 surfaces shows very diffuse reflections. The effect is attributed to an anisotropic heating of the irradiated Te-Nb-Te surface layer. Diffraction patterns for electron energies below 90 eV correspond to an overlapped contribution from numerous domains, belonging to three orientational variants. Electrons of higher energies stabilize the parent high-temperature CdI 2 structure. A similar effect is observed during scanning tunneling microscopy, where the expected surface corrugation is usually lost for tunneling currents of a few ten nA.

Alternative model for the structural modulation inNbSe3andm−TaS3