Epitaxial Growth of Cu on Au(111) and Ag(111) by Surface Limited Redox ReplacementAn Electrochemical and STM Study

Abstract

The growth of ultrathin copper films by surface limited redox replacement is discussed and experimentally illustrated. Cyclic voltammetry, in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and X-ray diffraction are employed to monitor the two-dimensional growth and characterize the structure of up to 100 monolayers (ML) of Cu on Ag (111) and Au(111) substrates. The growth is carried out by multiple redox replacement of a layer of underpotentially deposited (upd) Pb used as a sacrificial metal. Open-circuit potential monitoring during the replacement reaction is used to control the completion of each deposition event. Anodic film stripping is performed to determine the film thickness and calculate the yield of the employed deposition strategy. The excellent surface quality of an epitaxially grown Cu film is manifested by a distinct Pb upd voltammetry and ascertained by in situ STM showing uniform surface morphology maintained during the entire growth process. High-resolution STM imaging of Pb upd layer deposited on as-grown Cu films reveals a structure identical to Pb on Cu(111). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows no traces of Pb into accordingly deposited Cu films.

Well‐ordered structure of methylene blue monolayers on Au(111) surface: Electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy studies

“…The electrochemical potential of a substrate could offer a further factor to control molecule-substrate interactions (Bae et al, 2008;Viyannalage et al, 2007). Compared with the substrate modified with charged material, the substrate under the potential control was flexible to alter the molecule-substrate interactions.…”

Physico–chemical Modelling of Adlayer Phase Formation via Surface–limited Reactions of Copper in Relation to Sequential Electrodeposition of Multilayered Platinum on Crystalline Gold

“…Electrochemical deposition of transition metals, with atomic control using single-step or multistep surface-limited redox-replacement (SLRR) reactions, is of fundamental and potential technological importance in fabrication of monolayer-decorated nanoparticles, monolayercoated surfaces, epitaxial ultra-thin films, as well as multilayered nanoclusters [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. In a typical SLRR reaction (Reaction (1)), an adlayer of a metal M formed electrochemically through underpotential deposition (UPD) [15,16] …”

Electrochemical Atomic Layer Deposition of Cobalt Enabled by the Surface-Limited Redox Replacement of Underpotentially Deposited Zinc

“…The importance of minimizing dissolved oxygen in the e-ALD electrolytes must be emphasized here. This is a known issue in many other electrochemical ALD processes 30,36 which also suffer from extreme sensitivity to dissolved oxygen content of the electrolytes.…”

“…Over the last two decades, electrochemical ALD (or e-ALD) has been utilized for deposition of a variety of metals, 23,24 including Pt, [25][26][27][28] Cu, [29][30][31] Pd, 32 Ru, 33 Ag, [34][35][36] Au, 37 Ge, 38 and semiconductor compounds. [39][40][41] In the following introductory discussion, the process of e-ALD of Cu is described as a representative example.…”