title: When scanning tunneling microscopy gets the wrong adsorption site: H on Rh(100).
abstract: At low tunneling resistance, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of a Rh(100) surface with adsorbed hydrogen reproducibly show protrusions in all bridge sites of the surface, leading to a naive interpretation of all bridge sites being occupied with H atoms. Using quantitative low-energy electron diffraction and temperature programmed desorption we find a much lower H coverage, with most H atoms in fourfold hollow sites. Density functional theory calculations show that the STM result is due to the influence of the tip, attracting the mobile H atoms into bridge sites. This demonstrates that STM images of highly mobile adsorbates can be strongly misleading and underlines the importance of additional analysis techniques.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Allgemeine Physik, Vienna University of Technology, A-1040 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eichler
authors.forename: E L D
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Hebenstreit
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pauer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Varga