The oxidation of Cu{100} with a hyperthermal O2 molecular beam (HOMB) was investigated using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy in conjunction with a synchrotron light source. The efficiency of oxidation with HOMB is higher than that with ambient thermal O2. Further oxidation under oxygen coverage (Θ)⩾0.5 ML occurs rather inefficiently even for the 2.3-eV-HOMB irradiation. We found that such slow oxidation of Cu corresponding to the initial stage of the Cu2O formation can be interpreted in terms of a collision-induced-absorption mechanism. The kinetics of the dissociative adsorption under Θ⩽0.5 ML is well described using the first-order kinetics in a simple Langmuir-type adsorption model.

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We report results of a study on the incident energy and the surface-temperature dependence of the steric effects in the dissociative adsorption of CH3Cl on a Si{100} surface. Data presented here show that the initial sticking probability for the Cl-end collision is larger at an incident energy of 120 meV than that in the CH3-end collision. Furthermore, this steric preference is quite sensitive to the kinetic energy and the rotational state of CH3Cl and the surface temperature. This study shows that the nonequilibrium surface trapping plays a key role in the initial step of the decomposition of CH3Cl on Si{100}.

Alloying Pd with Au has remarkable features of enhancement of hydrogen solubility compared to Pd and catalytic activity for reactions such as partial hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbons. A key to understanding these phenomena is clarification of hydrogen behavior in the near-surface region. In the present work, by applying nuclear reaction analysis for high-resolution depth profiling of hydrogen in combination with thermal desorption spectroscopy, we show that hydrogen substantially accumulates in the near-surface region and is absorbed in the bulk of a single-crystal Pd70Au30(110) alloy. We also demonstrate a molecular cap effect of CO, where a small amount of CO adsorption greatly changes the hydrogen absorption and desorption behavior by blocking the entrance/exit channel for hydrogen. These findings lead to understanding and controlling the catalytic activity of the Pd–Au alloy and Pd-related surfaces and also open up a new method to control hydrogen transport across metal surfaces.