Electronic structure of bimetallic Ni-Rh nanowires

Author(s)
Margareta Wagner, Alessandro Stroppa, Florian Mittendorfer, George Ramsey, Svetlozar L. Surnev, Falko P. Netzer
Abstract

The electronic structure of a bare Rh(553) surface and of a Ni-decorated Rh(553) surface has been investigated by angle-resolved UV photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. The self-assembly of Ni adatoms leads to the decoration of the steps of the Rh(553) surface with monoatomic Ni rows under suitable kinetic conditions, thus forming a regular array of pseudomorphic bimetallic Ni-Rh nanowires. The electronic structure of the clean Rh(553) surface has been compared to the one of the flat Rh(111) surface, and additional surface states localized at the step edges due to the lower coordination of the step atoms have been detected. The Ni wires are weakly hybridized with the Rh substrate states and are characterized by only weakly dispersing states. This leads to a strong narrowing of the d-band, which is argued to be the origin of the observed high chemical reactivity of the Ni-Rh nanowires.

Organisation(s)
Computational Materials Physics
External organisation(s)
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Journal
Surface Science
Volume
604
Pages
1406-1413
No. of pages
8
ISSN
0039-6028
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susc.2010.05.001
Publication date
2010
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103018 Materials physics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/5649bcd2-1b8b-44d6-b2c6-74f7311218fc