Mechanism of the CO-induced1×2→1×1structural transformation of Pt(110)

Abstract

Direct observation of the removal of the ‘‘missing row’’ reconstruction of the clean Pt(110) surface under the influence of CO adsorption by scanning tunneling microscopy revealed that at 300 K this process is initiated by homogeneous nucleation of small characteristic 1×1 patches. Their further growth is limited by thermal activation; migration of Pt atoms is restricted to a few lattice sites. At higher temperatures, correlated jumps cause the lateral displacement of longer chains, and the enhanced surface mobility leads to the formation of larger, strongly anisotropic 1×1 islands.