PNNL

Abstract

(WO3)3 gas-phase clusters generated via vacuum sublimation are deposited under UHV and low temperature (5 K) conditions on a Cu(110) "stripe" phase consisting of alternating Cu-O (2x1) and clean Cu regions. STM imaging shows that the clusters adsorb as intact units on both substrates, and the suggested adsorption geometries are confirmed by density-functional (DF) simulations. On the clean surface the overall distortion is minor and we are able to image the nodal structure of an individual molecular orbital in the STM at low bias, whereas on the Cu-O surface both the clusters and the substrate are significantly distorted, due to the strong oxygen affinity of W atoms. On both surfaces cluster and Cu electronic states are appreciably mixed, and electron charge is donated by the surface to the cluster. The experimentally STS-determined DOS signature of the adsorption complex consists in two peaks across the Fermi energy and is well reproduced by the DF calculations.