COPPER-OXIDE INTERFACE FORMATION - A VIBRATIONAL AND ELECTRONIC INVESTIGATION BY ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPIES

In this study, we deposited copper on a MgO(100) surface at room temperature (using a Knudsen cell) and studied the interface formation using electron spectroscopy. The evolution of the AES peak intensities showed that copper grows on MgO(100) in the Stranski-Krastanov mode. In HREELS experiments, the intensity and the position of the energy loss corresponding to the MgO surface optical phonon at 80.7 meV, both decrease with increasing Cu coverage. These results agree with theoretical spectra simulated from the dielectric theory by considering a Cu2O overlayer on a semi-infinite MgO crystal substrate at the beginning of the growth. From the HREELS data, both the formation of a homogeneous Cu metallic overlayer or a CuO overlayer on MgO can be ruled out. The synchrotron-radiation (SR) photoemission measurements were performed in the vicinity of the Cu 3p-3d resonance. The positions of the Cu resonance peaks as a function of Cu coverage on MgO show that at low coverage the difference in energy between the main Cu 3d peak and the resonance peak is close to that found in Cu2O and at higher coverage close to metallic copper indicating the formation of an interacting phase at the beginning followed by the growth of metallic copper.