title: Landing of size-selected Agn+ clusters on single crystal TiO2 (110)-(1x1) surfaces at room temperature.
abstract: Mass-selected Ag(n) (+) (n=1,2,3) clusters with impact energy less than 2 eV per atom were deposited from the gas phase onto rutile titania (110)-(1x1) single crystal surfaces at room temperature and imaged using ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy. Upon reaching the surface, Ag monomers sintered to form three-dimensional islands of approximately 50 atoms in size, with an average measured height of 7.5 A and diameter of 42 A. This suggests that the monomers are highly mobile on the titania surface at room temperature. Dimers also sintered to form large clusters upon deposition, approximately 30 atoms in size, with an average height of 6.2 A and diameter of 33 A. Clusters formed from monomer deposition appeared approximately three times more frequently at step edges than clusters formed from dimer deposition, indicating that the surface mobility of deposited monomers is higher than that of deposited dimers. In sharp contrast to the deposition of monomers and dimers, the deposition of trimers resulted in a high density of very small clusters on the order of a few atoms in size, indicative of intact trimers on the surface, implying that deposited trimers have very limited mobility on the surface at room temperature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Benz
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kemper
authors.forename: Yigal
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lilach
authors.forename: Andrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kolmakov
authors.forename: Horia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Metiu
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Bowers
authors.forename: Steven K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Buratto